This is why the sky has held back its dew and the earth its produce.

I stay away from the evil path, so that I might keep your instructions.

The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain stopped falling from the sky.

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his choice young men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”

I have told the great assembly about your justice. Look! I spare no words! O Lord, you know this is true.

O Lord, you do not withhold your compassion from me. May your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me!

You cause those who know me to keep their distance; you make me an appalling sight to them. I am trapped and cannot get free.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’ and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Moses instructed them to take his message throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing any more.

So the men did as instructed. They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls.

Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands!

Now at that time, the armies of the king of Babylon were besieging Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse attached to the royal palace of Judah.

“Listen, sir, you are a mighty prince among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you from burying your dead.”

Just as no one has power over the wind to restrain it, so no one has power over the day of his death. Just as no one can be discharged during the battle, so wickedness cannot rescue the wicked.

For King Zedekiah had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.

“Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.