But as for you, turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea.”

“Now then, be good enough to look at me; and I will not lie to your face!

Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths.

(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

“You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north.

Yes, throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh.

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

Turn to me so you can be delivered, all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

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

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.

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!

They say to a wooden idol, ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

Get up now, resume your journey, heading for the Amorite hill country, to all its areas including the arid country, the highlands, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

Now the Lord your God has made your fellow Israelites secure, just as he promised them. So now you may turn around and go to your homes in your own land which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned to you east of the Jordan.