But Josiah wouldn't turn around. In fact, he put on a disguise so he could fight Neco. He wouldn't listen to what God told him through what Neco had to say, and as a result, Josiah came to attack Neco on the Megiddo plain.

Some archers shot King Josiah, and the king told his servants, "Take me away, because I'm badly wounded."

"And Cyrus told him, "Take these utensils, go to Jerusalem, and carry them to the Temple, after the Temple of God has been built in its appropriate place.'

Furthermore, we decree that with respect to any of the priests, descendants of Levi, singers, gatekeepers, Temple Servants, or other servants of this Temple of God, it is not to be lawful to impose any tribute, tax, or toll on them.

I told them to go see Iddo, a leader of Casiphia, and tell him and his relatives (administrators of Casiphia) to bring us men who could serve in the Temple of our God.

because I was ashamed to ask the king for a contingent of soldiers and cavalry to protect us from enemies we might encounter on the way. After all, we had told the king, "The hand of our God seeks the good of all who seek him, but his power and anger are against everyone who forsakes him."

I told them, "You are consecrated to the LORD, and the vessels are also consecrated. The silver and the gold are a freely given offering to the LORD God of your ancestors.

They told me, "The survivors of the captivity there in the province are living in great distress and shame. Furthermore, the Jerusalem wall remains broken down and its gates have been burned by fire."

Later I told them, "You all are watching the predicament we're in, how Jerusalem lies desolate, with its gates burned by fire. Let's rebuild the Jerusalem wall so we're no longer a disgrace."

Then I told them how good my God had been to me, and about what the king had told me. They replied, "Let's get out there and build!" So they encouraged themselves to do good.

I told the officials, rulers, and the rest of the people, "The project is large and extensive, and we are separated from each other on the wall,

At the same time I told the people, "Let's have everyone sleep at night inside Jerusalem with their servants, so they can guard us at night and work during the day.

Furthermore, they kept reporting Tobiah's good deeds to me, and kept repeating what I told him. Tobiah kept sending letters to intimidate me.

Because all the people were weeping as they listened to the words of the Law, Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the descendants of Levi who taught the people told everyone, "This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep."

He also told them, "Go eat the best food, drink the best wine, and give something to those who have nothing, since this day is holy to our Lord. Don't be sorrowful, because the joy of the LORD is your strength."

"You multiplied their descendants like the stars in heaven and brought them to the land about which you told their ancestors to enter and possess.

Now Esther had not declared her heritage or her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her, for Esther did what Mordecai told her just as she had done when she was raised by him.

When Mordecai learned about the plot, he told Queen Esther, and she told the king in Mordecai's name.

They asked him this day after day, and he would not listen to them, so they told Haman to see whether or not Mordecai would get away with his disobedience, since he also had told them that he was Jewish.

Because they had told him who the people of Mordecai were, Haman found it unacceptable to kill only Mordecai. So Haman sought to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jewish people, who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Then Haman told King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and divided among the people throughout the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different than all the other people, they don't obey the king's laws, and it's not in the king's best interest to leave them alone.

The king told Haman, "The silver is given to you, along with the people, to do with them as you see fit."

When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was greatly distressed. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on so he could take off the sackcloth that he had on, but he would not take them.

Mordecai told him everything that had happened and the exact amount of money that Haman had said he would pay into the king's treasury in order to destroy the Jewish people.

Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.

Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Don't suppose that because you are in the palace, you will escape any more than the other Jewish people.

Then Haman told them about his splendid wealth, the number of his sons, all the ways the king had honored him, and that he had promoted him above all the other officials and ministers of the king.

The king's young men told him, "Look, Haman is standing in the courtyard." The king said, "Let him come in."

Haman told himself, "Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?" Haman answered the king, "For a man whom the king desires to honor,

Then the king told Haman, "Quick! Take the clothes and the horse just as you have suggested and do this for Mordecai the Jew who sits in the king's gate. And don't let anything you've suggested fall through the cracks."

Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His wise friends and his wife Zeresh told him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is one of the Jewish people, you won't prevail against him. Instead, you will surely fall before him."

On the second day the king again told Esther as they drank wine, "What's your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What's your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done."

That day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, and Mordecai came into the king's presence because Esther had told him how Mordecai was related to her.

King Ahasuerus told Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I've given Haman's property to Esther, and they have hanged him on the pole because he tried to harm the Jewish people.

The king told Queen Esther, "In Susa the capital the Jewish people have killed and destroyed 500 people, including Haman's ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what's your petition? It will be given to you. What's your further request? It will be done."

Then the LORD told Satan, "Very well then, everything he owns is under your control, only you may not extend your hand against him." So Satan left the LORD's presence.

The LORD asked Satan, "Where have you come from?" In response, Satan told the LORD, "From wandering all over the earth and walking back and forth throughout it."

Then the LORD told Satan, "Very well then, he is under your control. Just preserve his life."

Then his wife told him, "Do you remain firm in your integrity? Curse God and die!"

They told God, "Get away from us!' and "What will the Almighty do to them?'

"If I've put my confidence in gold, if I've told gold, "You're my security,'

"Has anyone ever really told God, "I've endured, and I won't act corruptly anymore.

The LORD answered Job from the wind storm and told him:

Let me announce the decree of the LORD that he told me: "You are my son, today I have become your father.

I told the LORD, "You are my master, I have nothing good apart from you."

Our descendants will serve him, and that generation will be told about the Lord.

I told myself, "I will keep watch over my tongue to keep from sinning. I will muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around."

God, we heard it with our ears; our ancestors told us about what you did in their day a long time ago.

Then you will be pleased with right sacrifices, with burnt offerings, and with whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar. To the Director: A Davidic instruction about Doeg, the Edomite, when he went to Saul and told him, "David went to the house of Abimelech."

Would that Israel's deliverance come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad. To the Director: With stringed instruments. A Davidic instruction, when the Ziphites came and told Saul, "David is hiding among us, is he not?"

he taught me and told me, "Let your heart fully embrace what I have to say; keep my commandments and live!

The wise-hearted person is told to be discerning, and that pleasant speech promotes instruction.

for it is better that it be told you, "Come up here," than for you to be placed lower in the presence of an official. What you've seen with your own eyes,

I told myself, "I have become greater and wiser than anyone who ruled before me in Jerusalem yes, I have acquired a great deal of wisdom and knowledge."

I told myself, "I will test you with pleasure, so enjoy yourself." But this was pointless.

Then I told myself, "Whatever happens to the fool will happen also to me. Therefore what's the point in being so wise?" And I told myself that this also is pointless.

I also examined on earth: where the halls of justice were supposed to be, there was lawlessness; and where the righteous were supposed to be, there was lawlessness. 17I told myself, "God will judge both the righteous and the wicked, because there is a time set to judge every event and every work."

"As for human beings," I told myself, "God puts them to the test, that they might see themselves as mere animals."

I told myself, "I'll go up the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples.

So the LORD told Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool that proceeds along the highway to Launderer's Field.

The LORD also told me, "Take a large tablet and write on it with a stylus pen, "For Maher-shalal-hash-baz'.

After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the LORD told me, "Call him "Maher-shalal-hash-baz,'

For this is what the LORD told me: "I will remain quiet and watch in my dwelling place like dazzling heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

For this is what the LORD told me: "Go post a lookout. Have him report what he sees.

For this is what the LORD told me: "Just as a lion or a young lion growls over his objects of prey, even when a whole band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not alarmed at their shouting or disturbed by their clamor so the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill.

The field commander told them:

"Here is what Hezekiah says," they told him. "This day is a day of trouble, rebuke, and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no energy to deliver them.

"Here is what to tell your master," Isaiah told them. "This is what the LORD says: "Don't be afraid of the words you've heard those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have insulted me.

During that time, Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. Then Amoz's son Isaiah the prophet came to him and told him, "This is what the LORD says: "Put your house in order, because you are going to die. You won't recover.'"

Then Isaiah told Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies:

"You know, don't you? You have heard, haven't you? Hasn't it been told you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

you whom I encouraged from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, and told you, "You're my servant, I've chosen you and haven't cast you aside.'

Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could ask, "Is it right?' Indeed, no one told of this, no one made an announcement, and no one heard your words:

I told you these things long ago; I announced them to you before they happened so that you couldn't say, "My idol did them; my carved image or metal idol ordained them.'

so will he startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

Then the LORD told me, "Don't say, "I'm only a young man,' for you will go everywhere I send you, and you will speak everything I command you.

The LORD stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and then told me, "Look, I've put my words in your mouth.

The LORD told me, "You have observed well, because I'm watching over my message, to make sure it comes about."

Then the LORD told me, "From the north disaster will pour out on all who live in the land,

In the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, "Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.

Then the LORD told me, "Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

At that time, it will be told this people and to Jerusalem, "A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert is coming toward my people, and it's not for winnowing or cleansing.

The LORD told me, "Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You are to say, "Listen to the words of this covenant and do them.

The LORD told me, "Conspiracy has been found among the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn't know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit. Let's eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won't be remembered again."

This is what the LORD told me: "Go and buy a linen belt for yourself, and put it around your waist. But don't let it get wet."

After a long time, the LORD told me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and get the belt that I commanded you to hide there."

Then the LORD told me, "Don't pray for the welfare of these people.

Then the LORD told me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn't send them, I didn't command them, and I didn't speak to them. They're proclaiming to you false visions, worthless predictions, and the delusions of their own minds.

Then the LORD told me, "Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

The LORD told me, "Go, stand in the gate of the people, where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in the other gates of Jerusalem as well.

The next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, and Jeremiah told him, "The LORD has not named you Pashhur, but rather Magor-missabib.

Jeremiah told them, "This is what you are to say to Zedekiah,

The LORD told me, "What do you see?" I replied, "Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad. They're too bad to be eaten."

This is what Jeremiah the prophet told all the people of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem:

The priests and prophets told the officials and all the people, "A death sentence for this man, because he prophesied against this city, as you heard with your own ears!"

Now, change your habits and your deeds and obey the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he told you about.

The officials and all the people told the priests and the prophets, "No death sentence for this man because he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."

Some of the elders of the land got up and told all the assembled people,

In that same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year and the fifth month, Azzur's son Hananiah, the prophet from Gibeon, told me at the LORD's Temple in front of the priests and all the people,