those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.

Because you rage against me and the uproar you create has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came."

He will go back the way he came -- he will not enter this city,' says the Lord.

So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh.

A voice cries out, "In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God.

From whom does he receive directions? Who teaches him the correct way to do things, or imparts knowledge to him, or instructs him in skillful design?

I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. I will turn the darkness in front of them into light, and level out the rough ground. This is what I will do for them. I will not abandon them.

It is me -- I stir him up and commission him; I will make all his ways level. He will rebuild my city; he will send my exiled people home, but not for a price or a bribe," says the Lord who commands armies.

This is what the Lord, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.

"As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah's time, when I vowed that the waters of Noah's flood would never again cover the earth. In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend."

The dogs have big appetites; they are never full. They are shepherds who have no understanding; they all go their own way, each one looking for monetary gain.

You take olive oil as tribute to your king, along with many perfumes. You send your messengers to a distant place; you go all the way to Sheol.

He says, "Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!"

Your gates will remain open at all times; they will not be shut during the day or at night, so that the wealth of nations may be delivered, with their kings leading the way.

Come through! Come through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build it! Build the roadway! Remove the stones! Lift a signal flag for the nations!

Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest. In this way you guided your people, gaining for yourself an honored reputation.

Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways, and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance!

I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable, and who did what they desired.

The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog's neck; the one who presents an offering includes pig's blood with it; the one who offers incense also praises an idol. They have decided to behave this way; they enjoy these disgusting practices.

In this way I will pass sentence on the people of Jerusalem and Judah because of all their wickedness. For they rejected me and offered sacrifices to other gods, worshiping what they made with their own hands."

"How can you say, 'I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to the gods called Baal.' Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path.

"A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God.

"The way you have lived and the things you have done will bring this on you. This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart."

Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected. They have become as hardheaded as a rock. They refuse to change their ways.

I thought, "Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. They do not know what their God requires of them.

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone their own way.

That is how they have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil things they do. They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor.

The prophets prophesy lies. The priests exercise power by their own authority. And my people love to have it this way. But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes!

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land.

You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly.

I also explicitly commanded them: "Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you."

The Lord said to me, "Tell them, 'The Lord says, Do people not get back up when they fall down? Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way?

Everyone must be on his guard around his friends. He must not even trust any of his relatives. For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. They are always telling lies. Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them.

They have gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

"I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses.

For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The Lord says, 'I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.'

Yet my people have forgotten me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols! This makes them stumble along in the way they live and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level.

So their land will become an object of horror. People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision.

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression.

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. But you said, "I refuse to listen to you." That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated.

But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing.

He said through them, 'Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession.

Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing.

Tell them that the Lord says, 'You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws.

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would.

Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. "The Lord says, 'In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon before two years are over.'" After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way.

I will say, 'My dear children of Israel, keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to these cities of yours.

You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. You see everything people do. You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do.

I will give them a single-minded purpose to live in a way that always shows respect for me. They will want to do that for their own good and the good of the children who descend from them.

"The Lord God of Israel says, 'Give a message to the king of Judah who sent you to ask me to help him. Tell him, "The army of Pharaoh that was on its way to help you will go back home to Egypt.

Then Jeremiah replied to all the people, both men and women, who responded to him in this way.

The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba.

They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

Then say, 'In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.'" The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.

(Nun) Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.

"Therefore, speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: In this way too your fathers blasphemed me when they were unfaithful to me.

You have followed the ways of your sister, so I will place her cup of judgment in your hand.

They had sex with her as one does with a prostitute. In this way they had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, promiscuous women.

"'On that day I will assign Gog a grave in Israel. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea; it will block the way of the travelers. There they will bury Gog and all his horde; they will call it the valley of Hamon-Gog.

The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; for the structure surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story.

The glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate that faces east.

Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces east, but it was shut.

Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way."

Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. As I watched, I noticed the glory of the Lord filling the Lord's temple, and I threw myself face down.

The prince will enter by way of the porch of the gate from the outside, and will stand by the doorpost of the gate. The priests will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he will bow down at the threshold of the gate and then go out. But the gate will not be closed until evening.

When the prince enters, he will come by way of the porch of the gate and will go out the same way.

"'When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship will go out by way of the south gate; whoever enters by way of the south gate will go out by way of the north gate. No one will return by way of the gate they entered but will go out straight ahead.

He led me out by way of the north gate and brought me around the outside of the outer gate that faces toward the east; I noticed that the water was trickling out from the south side.

"This will be the border of the land: On the north side, from the Great Sea by way of Hethlon to the entrance of Zedad;

I hereby decree that any people, nation, or language group that blasphemes the god of Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego will be dismembered and his home reduced to rubble! For there exists no other god who can deliver in this way."

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all his deeds are right and his ways are just. He is able to bring down those who live in pride.

Then all the color drained from the king's face and he became alarmed. The joints of his hips gave way, and his knees began knocking together.

Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone -- gods that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control your very breath and all your ways!

When the king heard this, he was very upset and began thinking about how he might rescue Daniel. Until late afternoon he was struggling to find a way to rescue him.

I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way: "O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments,

His sons will wage war, mustering a large army which will advance like an overflowing river and carrying the battle all the way to the enemy's fortress.

At an appointed time he will again invade the south, but this latter visit will not turn out the way the former one did.

But you should go your way until the end. You will rest and then at the end of the days you will arise to receive what you have been allotted."

Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

I will deal with the people and priests together: I will punish them both for their ways, and I will repay them for their deeds.

The Lord also has a covenant lawsuit against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

Who is wise? Let him discern these things! Who is discerning? Let him understand them! For the ways of the Lord are right; the godly walk in them, but in them the rebellious stumble.

Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. Let them say, "Have pity, O Lord, on your people; please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, "Where is their God?"

They trample on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; they push the destitute away. A man and his father go to the same girl; in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity.

"I overthrew some of you the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me." The Lord is speaking!

"Look! I am about to bring a nation against you, family of Israel." The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. "They will oppress you all the way from Lebo-Hamath to the Stream of the Arabah."

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do.

When God saw their actions -- they turned from their evil way of living! -- God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen -- your appointed time of punishment -- is on the way, and then you will experience confusion.

The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. He does this so he can build his nest way up high and escape the clutches of disaster.

For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? Then they paid attention and confessed, 'The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.'"

"I am about to punish them in such a way," he says, "that they will be looted by their own slaves." Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

But I will be different now to this remnant of my people from the way I was in those days,' says the Lord who rules over all,

You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; you have corrupted the covenant with Levi," says the Lord who rules over all.

Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?