Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash the Proud One? Did you not wound the sea monster?

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;
And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];
Everlasting joy will be theirs.

And now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father, We are the clay, and Thou our Framer, And the work of Thy hand -- all of us.

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

“And you will leave your name behind to My chosen ones [who will use it] as a curse,
And the Lord God will put you to death,
But He will call His servants by another name [a much greater name, just as the name Israel was greater than the name Jacob].

That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Yes, the Lord has this to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: "Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground, you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning; just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted, you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives.

Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

They have turned back to the iniquities of their former ancestors, who refused to obey my words, and they have gone after other gods, to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I {made} with their ancestors."

“What will you say when He appoints over you—
And you yourself had taught them—
Former companions to be head over you?
Will not pangs take hold of you
Like a woman in childbirth?

But at that time they will affirm them with "I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them." At that time they will live in their own land.'"

“Thus says the Lord,
‘Behold (hear this), I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
And have mercy on his dwelling places;
The city will be rebuilt on its [old, mound-like] ruin,
And the palace will stand on its rightful place.

‘Their children too will be as in former times,
And their congregation will be established before Me;
And I will punish all their oppressors.

Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmer and they who go about with flocks.

Thus said Jehovah its maker, Jehovah its former, at establishing it, Jehovah is His name:

I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times.

a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying,

Praise the Lord of Hosts,
for the Lord is good;
His faithful love endures forever

as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord.

But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.

But afterward they backed out [of the covenant] and made the male servants and the female servants whom they had set free return [to them], and brought the male servants and the female servants again into servitude.

Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews [my former subjects] who have deserted to join the Chaldeans, for the enemy may put me into their hand and they will mock me and abuse me.”

I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar and his troops, who want to kill them. But later on, people will live in Egypt again as they did in former times. I, the Lord, affirm it!"

In the shadows of the walls of Heshbon those trying to escape will stand helpless. For a fire will burst forth from Heshbon. Flames will shoot out from the former territory of Sihon. They will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab, the skulls of those war-loving people.

The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.

With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
With you I shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen,
And with you I shatter governors and commanders.

Lord, restore us to Yourself, so we may return;
renew our days as in former times,

When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

The desolate fields will be cultivated, replacing the former wasteland that everyone who passed by in times past had noticed.

Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Art thou he of whom I spake in former days, By the hand of My servants, prophets of Israel, Who are prophesying in those days -- years, To bring thee in against them?

I was considering the horns, when lo! another horn, a little one, came up among them, and, three of the former horns, were uprooted from before it, - and lo! eyes, like the eyes of a man, in this horn, and, a mouth, speaking great things.

And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.

while I was still speaking in prayer and extremely exhausted, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

The king of the South will be enraged and go forth and fight with the king of the North. Then the latter will raise a great multitude, but that multitude will be given into the hand of the former.

For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.

At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.

She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;
she will seek them but not find them.
Then she will think,
“I will go back to my former husband,
for then it was better for me than now.”

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

For, lo, the former of mountains, and creator of wind, And the declarer to man what is His thought, He is making dawn obscurity, And is treading on high places of earth, Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His name!

Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;
they will cry out in anguish in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,
and professional mourners to wail.

Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs;

“But on Mount Zion [in Jerusalem] there shall be [deliverance for] those who escape,
And it shall be holy [no pagan will defile it];
And the house of Jacob shall possess their [former] possessions.

And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

What profit hath a graven image given That its former hath graven it? A molten image and teacher of falsehood, That trusted hath the former on his own formation -- to make dumb idols?

Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing?

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

And look, I will shake my fist over them, and they will become plunder for their former slaves. And you will know that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent me."'"

Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.

Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], O prisoners who have the hope;
Even today I am declaring that I will restore double [your former prosperity] to you [as firstborn among nations].

Instead he will say, 'I am no prophet -- indeed, I am a farmer, for a man has made me his indentured servant since my youth.'

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it will rise up high and it will stay in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of [the] former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

When the evil spirit was driven out [by Jesus] the [former] deaf-mute began to speak, and the crowds marveled, saying, "No one in Israel has ever seen this done before."

Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax-farmer; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they reenter [the body] and [begin to] live there, so that the latter state of that person becomes worse than the former [state]. It will be the same way with the people of this evil generation."

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

"Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

"So the farmer's men come and ask him, "'Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed on your land? Where then does the darnel come from?'

But the farmer said, 'No, for while you are gathering up the weeds, you might root up [some of] the wheat with them.

And if he will not give ear to them, let it come to the hearing of the church: and if he will not give ear to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-farmer.

"For the kingdom of heaven is similar to a farmer who went out early one morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

And when they received it, they complained to the farmer,

Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omit ting the former.

When Judas, His betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was gripped with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,

"Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow,

The farmer sows the word.

And Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is like a farmer who scattered seed on the ground,

But when the grain ripens the farmer wields his sickle because harvest time has come."

And when He had come into the boat, the former demoniac begged Him that he might be with Him.

and he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman is an adulterer to the former,

He began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the winepress, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country.

When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard.

And after these things he went out, and saw Levi, a tax-farmer, seated at the place where taxes were taken, and said to him, Come after me.

"The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.

[Once] Jesus was driving out an evil spirit from a [man who was] mute. And it happened when the evil spirit left [him] that the [former] mute began to speak. And the crowds were amazed.

Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they reenter [the body] and [begin] to live there, so that the latter state of that person becomes worse than the former state."

But woe to you Pharisees! you tithe mint and rue and every vegetable, but justice and the love of God you disregard; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omitting the former.

Two men went up to the Temple for prayer; one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-farmer.

The Pharisee, taking up his position, said to himself these words: God, I give you praise because I am not like other men, who take more than their right, who are evil-doers, who are untrue to their wives, or even like this tax-farmer.

The tax-farmer, on the other hand, keeping far away, and not lifting up even his eyes to heaven, made signs of grief and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

A man, named Zacchaeus, who was the chief tax-farmer, and a man of wealth,

They brought him to the Pharisees--the former blind man.

So, they said to the [former] blind man again, "What do you have to say about the man, since [you say] he restored your sight?" The man replied, "He is a prophet."

So, they called the [former] blind man a second time, and said to him, "Give honor to God [Note: In Jewish idiom this phrase meant "Tell the truth." See Josh. 7:19]; we know this man is a sinner."

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

They led Him to Annas first [Note: This man was a former head priest. See Luke 3:2], for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was head priest that year.

Meanwhile, the head priest asked Jesus about His disciples and His teaching. [Note: This was probably Annas, the former "head priest" who later sent Jesus to the current head priest, Caiaphas. See verse 24].

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

"Brothers, that Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit uttered by the mouth of David in the former times about Judas who became the guide to those who arrested Jesus;

And as this [former] crippled man stayed close beside Peter and John, all the people rushed toward them at "Solomon's Portico" [Note: This was a large covered area, with rows of columns, on the side of the Temple enclosure], completely astonished [at what had happened].