who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

"All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."

The king said, "What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" Then the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him."

For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's loss."

For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.

I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

"If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor's door,

if his heart hasn't blessed me, if he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece;

and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?'

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

I will sing to Yahweh, because he has been good to me. For the Chief Musician. By David.

Don't hide your face from me. Don't put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don't abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"

All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant.

But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.

God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.

For you have been a refuge for me, a strong tower from the enemy.

For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.

For all day long have I been plagued, and punished every morning.

Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob.

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.

Unless Yahweh had been my help, my soul would have soon lived in silence.

But Yahweh has been my high tower, my God, the rock of my refuge.

Your statutes have been my songs, in the house where I live.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.

If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say,

if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, when men rose up against us;

For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.

That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it may be said, "Behold, this is new?" It has been long ago, in the ages which were before us.

I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king's successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.

For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!

That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago: and God seeks again that which is passed away.

Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.

Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."

My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.

Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.

We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

"I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.

Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life.

Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel.

"Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne [by me] from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;

Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:

your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

"For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.

Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?'"

For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.

so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.

Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

"Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you don't fear me?

"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time; and shall we be saved?

For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.

Generation, consider the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'

"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" says Yahweh.

Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads.

She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.

For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you didn't obey my voice.

The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers didn't listen to me, neither inclined their ear.

For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.

But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah;

But since we left off burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.

Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch: ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, What has been done?

My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.