“I will make you pass under the rod [as the shepherd does with his sheep when he counts them, and I will count you as Mine and constrain you] and bring you into the bond of the covenant [to which you are permanently bound].

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Does he not speak parables?

And a man does a detestable thing [with] the wife of his neighbor, and a man defiles his daughter-in-law in wickedness, and a man sexually violates among you his sister, the daughter of his father.

Yet they had sex with her as one does with a prostitute. This is how they had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, those obscene women.

She has wearied herself with toil; yet her great rust doesn't go forth out of her; her rust doesn't go forth by fire.

And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Because Moab and Seir (Edom) say, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the [pagan] nations,’

and {anyone who listens} hears the sound of the horn and {he does not take warning} and [the] sword comes and it takes him, his blood will be on his [own] head.

And [as for] the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and {he does not blow} the horn, and the people [are] not warned, and [the] sword comes and it takes {their lives}, he will be taken through his guilt, but his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.'

Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does evil.

When I say to the righteous, 'Certainly he will live,' and he trusted in his righteousness, and he [turns and he] does injustice, all of his righteousness will not be remembered, and because of his injustice that he did, because of it he will die.

Again, when I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;

When [the] righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, then he will die {because of it}.

But if the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live by it.

Does it seem a small thing to you to have taken your food on good grass-land while the rest of your grass-land is stamped down under your feet? and that after drinking from clear waters you make the rest of the waters dirty with your feet?

And when the prince makes a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or a fellowship offering [as] a freewill offering to Yahweh, the gate facing east will be open for him. And he must offer his burnt offering and his fellowship offering {just as} he does on the day of the Sabbath, and [then] he must go out and the gate will shut {after he goes out}.

And whereas thou saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cling one to another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

And he who does not fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

And he who does not fall down and worship, shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

In conclusion, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and give glory to the King of heaven: For everything he does is true, his ways are just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride."

Now, O king, establish the interdict, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.

Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree: Haven't you signed an decree, that every man who shall make petition to any god or man within thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn't alter.

Then they answered and said before the king, That Daniel, who is of the sons of the captivity of Judah, does not regard thee, O king, nor the interdict that thou have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

He gives salvation and makes men free from danger, and does signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who has kept Daniel safe from the power of the lions.

Because of rebellion, a host, together with the daily sacrifice, will be given over. The horn will throw truth to the ground and will be successful in whatever it does.

Then I heard a holy one speaking. Another holy one said to the one who was speaking, "To what period of time does the vision pertain -- this vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the destructive act of rebellion and the giving over of both the sanctuary and army to be trampled?"

His power will be great,
but it will not be his own.
He will cause terrible destruction
and succeed in whatever he does.
He will destroy the powerful
along with the holy people.

Therefore LORD has watched over the evil, and brought it upon us, for LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.

She does not recognize
that it is I who gave her the grain,
the new wine, and the oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her,
which they used for Baal.

{I will not punish your daughters} when they play the whore, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because they go aside with whores, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes, a people that does not understand comes to ruin.

And the pride of Israel does testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he does not know. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he does not know.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: the stalk has no bud: it shall yield no meal: if so be it does yield, the aliens shall swallow it up.

I wrote for him the ten thousand precepts of My law,
But they are regarded as a strange thing [which does not concern him].

As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but LORD does not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt.

O Israel, thou have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle against the sons of iniquity does not overtake them in Gibeah.

So He does to you, Bethel, because of your great evil. In a morning the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

My people are bent on backsliding from me. To the Most High they call, he does not raise them at all.

The LORD accuses Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him for what he does.

O Israel, thou doest but destroy thyself; In me only is thy help.

The labor pains of childbirth come for him; he [is] an unwise son because [at the] proper time, he does not present himself {at the mouth of the womb}.

Neither does one push another. They march each one in his path, and they burst through the weapons, and do not break off.

And Jehovah shall utter His voice before His army; for His camp is very great; for strong is He who does His Word. For the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who can stand it?

Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from its lair
unless it has captured something?

Does a bird land in a trap on the ground
if there is no bait for it?
Does a trap spring from the ground
when it has caught nothing?

Or is a horn blown in a city and people are not afraid? Or does a disaster occur in the city and Yahweh has not done [it]?

Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
without revealing His counsel
to His servants the prophets.

"And I also withheld the rain from you when [there were] still three months to the harvest. And I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city. One tract of land will be rained on, and [the] tract of land {on which it does not rain} will dry up.

Do horses gallop on the cliffs;
does anyone plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

“Because of this [coming judgment] will the land not quake
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
Indeed, all of it shall rise up like the Nile,
And it will be tossed around [from the impact of judgment]
And [afterward] subside again like the Nile of Egypt.

that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name, says LORD who does this.

Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

Go on your way, inhabitant of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness.
The inhabitant of Zaanan does not escape.
The lamentation of Beth-ezel: “He will take from you its support.”

House of Jacob, should it be asked,
“Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Are these the things He does?”
Don’t My words bring good
to the one who walks uprightly?

If a man walking in the spirit of falsehood does lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

Thus says LORD concerning the prophets who make my people to err, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace. And he who does not put into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many nations, like dew from Yahweh, like showers upon the grass which does not wait for a man, nor delays for the children of humankind.

Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams,
In ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown thee, O man, what is good. And what does LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see his righteousness;

Who is a God like to thee, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.

Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power. And He does not by any means acquit the guilty. Jehovah has His way in the tempest and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

Mountains shake because of him, and the hills melt. The earth goes into upheaval at his presence, as does the world with all of its inhabitants.

Woe to the bloody city. It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.

There fire will consume you,
The sword will cut you down;
It will consume you as the locust does.
Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,
Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.

Therefore the law is slacked, and justice does never go forth: for the wicked does surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Thine eyes are clean, thou mayest not see evil, thou cannot behold the thing that is wicked. Wherefore then doest thou look upon the ungodly, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is better than himself?

For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.

Yea, moreover, wine is treacherous.) [He is] a haughty man, who does not keep at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him all nations, and heaps to him all peoples.

"But all these nations will someday taunt him and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 'The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead (How long will this go on?) -- he who gets rich by extortion!'

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.

What profit is the pictured image to its maker? and as for the metal image, the false teacher, why does its maker put his faith in it, making false gods without a voice?

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there is no fruit on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,

She listens to no voice; she does not accept correction. In Yahweh she does not trust; to her God she does not draw near.

LORD in the midst of her is righteous. He will not do iniquity. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He does not fail, but the unjust man knows no shame.

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn’t it seem like nothing to you?

"The silver belongs to me, as does the gold," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

If one bears holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt does touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Then Haggai asked, “If someone defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?”

The priests answered, “It becomes defiled.”

And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah (grain basket) going forth. This,” he continued, “is their appearance throughout the land

“I will whistle for them and gather them together,
For I have redeemed them;
And they will increase [again] as they have increased before [in Egypt].

And if anyone goes on acting as a prophet, then his father and his mother who gave him life will say to him, You may not go on living, for you are saying what is false in the name of the Lord; and his father and his mother will put a sword through him when he does so.

{And then} whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them.

And if the family of Egypt does not go up, and does not come, that there shall be the plague with which LORD will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Do we not have one father? Has not one God created us? Why does each of us act deceitfully, each man against his own brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors?

May Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, [the] one who is awake and [who] answers, and [the one who] brings an offering to Yahweh of hosts!

And this again ye do: Ye cover the altar of LORD with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he does not regard the offering any more, nor receives it with good will at your hand.

But you say, “Why [does He reject it]?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your marriage companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your vows].

{Did not one God make them?} But a remnant of [the] spirit is his. And what does the one [God] desire? An offspring of God. {You must be attentive to} your spirit, and you must not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

You have wearied Yahweh with your words, but you ask, "With what have we wearied [him]?" [You have done so] {when you say}, "Everyone who does evil [is] good in the {sight} of Yahweh, and in them he delights," or "Where [is] the God of justice?"

And I'll prevent the devourer from harming you, so that he does not destroy the crops of your land. Nor will the vines in your fields drop their fruit," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

You will return and see [the difference] between [the] righteous and [the] wicked, between [the one who] serves God and the one who does not serve him.

the ax is already laid to the root of the trees: every tree then which does not produce good fruit, will be hewn down, and cast into the fire.

But he answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Neither does a person light an [olive oil] lamp and place it under a bushel-sized container, but on a stand where it can illuminate everything in the house.