and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned.

For very soon my fury will subside, and my anger will be directed toward their destruction."

This very day, standing in Nob, they shake their fist at Daughter Zion's mountain -- at the hill of Jerusalem.

Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives raped.

There will be some left behind, like when an olive tree is beaten -- two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches," says the Lord God of Israel.

When he sees chariots, teams of horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, very alert."

Your very best valleys were full of chariots; horsemen confidently took their positions at the gate.

The fortified city (along with the very tops of your walls) he will knock down, he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground.

In just a very short time Lebanon will turn into an orchard, and the orchard will be considered a forest.

Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood from the time the earth's foundations were made?

Who acts and carries out decrees? Who summons the successive generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning, and at the very end -- I am the one.

I was angry at my people; I defiled my special possession and handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; you even placed a very heavy burden on old people.

You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. For I know that you are very deceitful; you were labeled a rebel from birth.

Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I summoned! I am the one; I am present at the very beginning and at the very end.

Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there." So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.

Listen, your watchmen shout; in unison they shout for joy, for they see with their very own eyes the Lord's return to Zion.

Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. The messenger sent from his very presence delivered them. In his love and mercy he protected them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times.