I wish I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

For I rescued the poor man who cried out for help,
and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.

What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.

if I ever cast my vote against a fatherless child
when I saw that I had support in the city gate,

Haven’t the members of my household said,
“Who is there who has not had enough to eat at Job’s table?”

No stranger had to spend the night on the street,
for I opened my door to the traveler.

If only I had someone to hear my case!
Here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me.
Let my Opponent compose His indictment.

Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite from the family of Ram became angry. He was angry at Job because he had justified himself rather than God.

He was also angry at Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute him and yet had condemned him.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were all older than he.

He leaves a shining wake behind him;
one would think the deep had gray hair!

I had heard rumors about You,
but now my eyes have seen You.

After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his previous possessions.

All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. Each one gave him a qesitah and a gold earring.

He also had seven sons and three daughters.

He dug a pit and hollowed it out
but fell into the hole he had made.

You have freed me from the feuds among the people;
You have appointed me the head of nations;
a people I had not known serve me.

In my alarm I had said,
“I am cut off from Your sight.”
But You heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried to You for help.

If we had forgotten the name of our God
and spread out our hands to a foreign god,

I said, “If only I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and find rest.

If I had been aware of malice in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.

If I had decided to say these things aloud,
I would have betrayed Your people.

They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
while the food was still in their mouths,

Fire consumed His chosen young men,
and His young women had no wedding songs.

For I have had enough troubles,
and my life is near Sheol.

If the Lord had not been my helper,
I would soon rest in the silence of death.

where your fathers tested Me;
they tried Me, though they had seen what I did.

He had sent a man ahead of them—
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

He sent Moses His servant,
and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

Egypt was glad when they left,
for the dread of Israel had fallen on them.

He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they inherited
what other peoples had worked for.

So He said He would have destroyed them—
if Moses His chosen one
had not stood before Him in the breach
to turn His wrath away from destroying them.

They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them

If Your instruction had not been my delight,
I would have died in my affliction.

Show us favor, Lord, show us favor,
for we’ve had more than enough contempt.

We’ve had more than enough
scorn from the arrogant
and contempt from the proud.

A Davidic song of ascents.If the Lord had not been on our side—
let Israel say—

If the Lord had not been on our side
when men attacked us,

The Lord had done great things for us;
we were joyful.

Thistles had come up everywhere,
weeds covered the ground,
and the stone wall was ruined.

I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned many herds of cattle and flocks, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.

When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun.

I had just passed them
when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I brought him to my mother’s house—
to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away.
I was crushed that he had left.
I sought him, but did not find him.
I called him, but he did not answer.

If the Lord of Hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we would be like Sodom,
we would resemble Gomorrah.

“What are all your sacrifices to Me?”
asks the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams
and the fat of well-fed cattle;
I have no desire for the blood of bulls,
lambs, or male goats.

I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.

Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

On that day you will say:
“I will praise You, Lord,
although You were angry with me.
Your anger has turned away,
and You have had compassion on me.

It will be as if a reaper had gathered standing grain—
his arm harvesting the heads of grain—
and as if one had gleaned heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.

Only gleanings will be left in Israel,
as if an olive tree had been beaten—
two or three berries at the very top of the tree,
four or five on its fruitful branches.
This is the declaration of the Lord,
the God of Israel.

during that time the Lord had spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, take off your sackcloth and remove the sandals from your feet,” and he did so, going naked and barefoot—

All your rulers have fled together,
captured without a bow.
All your fugitives were captured together;
they had fled far away.

For the Lord God of Hosts
had a day of tumult, trampling, and confusion
in the Valley of Vision—
people shouting and crying to the mountains;

He had said to them:
“This is the place of rest,
let the weary rest;
this is the place of repose.”
But they would not listen.

When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.

The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush: “He has set out to fight against you.” So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.

A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

Indeed, it was for my own welfare
that I had such great bitterness;
but Your love has delivered me
from the Pit of destruction,
for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.

Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover.”

And Hezekiah had asked, “What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”

At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

If only you had paid attention to My commands.
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

so He will sprinkle many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths because of Him,
For they will see what had not been told them,
and they will understand what they had not heard.

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He grew up before Him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at Him,
no appearance that we should desire Him.

They made His grave with the wicked
and with a rich man at His death,
although He had done no violence
and had not spoken deceitfully.

Your holy people had a possession
for a little while,
but our enemies have trampled down
Your sanctuary.

I observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.

I looked, and no man was left;
all the birds of the sky had fled.

I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.

If only I had a traveler’s lodging place
in the wilderness,
I would abandon my people
and depart from them,
for they are all adulterers,
a solemn assembly of treacherous people.

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

for I was like a docile lamb led to slaughter.
I didn’t know that they had devised plots against me:
“Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit;
let’s cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name will no longer be remembered.”

So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined—of no use at all.

but rather, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of the north and from all the other lands where He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their ancestors.

However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.

However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.

Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple, and proclaimed to all the people,

So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord’s temple.

but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other countries where I had banished them.’ They will dwell once more in their own land.”

If they had really stood in My council,
they would have enabled My people to hear My words
and would have turned them back from their evil ways
and their evil deeds.

“I have heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in My name have said, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord.

He finished the address the Lord had commanded him to deliver to all the people. Then the priests, the prophets, and all the people took hold of him, yelling, “You must surely die!

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all the people of Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and plead for the Lord’s favor, and did not the Lord relent concerning the disaster He had pronounced against them? We are about to bring great harm on ourselves!”

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke bar from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet:

This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exiles, the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had left Jerusalem.

The letter was sent by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter stated:

At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration.

Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to hand this city over to Babylon’s king, and he will capture it.

“Then my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard as the Lord had said and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.