‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you.

So I, the Lord, say: “The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter!

The labor pains of a woman will overtake him, but the baby will lack wisdom; when the time arrives, he will not come out of the womb!

I put this charge before you, Timothy my child, in keeping with the prophecies once spoken about you, in order that with such encouragement you may fight the good fight.

Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children. They are the children I take delight in. For even though I must often rebuke them, I still remember them with fondness. So I am deeply moved with pity for them and will surely have compassion on them. I, the Lord, affirm it!

The Lord spoke about the Ammonites. “Do you think there are not any people of the nation of Israel remaining? Do you think there are not any of them remaining to reinherit their land? Is that why you people who worship the god Milcom have taken possession of the territory of Gad and live in his cities?

This is the service of the Kohathites in the tent of meeting, relating to the most holy things.

These were the families of the Gadites according to those numbered of them, 40,500.

You delivered your people by your strength – the children of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah)

the root your right hand planted, the shoot you made to grow!

For the music director; written by the Korahites, a psalm. O Lord, you showed favor to your land; you restored the well-being of Jacob.

so that mankind might acknowledge your mighty acts, and the majestic splendor of your kingdom.

Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, who cannot deliver!

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.

“So now, children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways.

I have observed the burden that God has given to people to keep them occupied.

When a sentence is not executed at once against a crime, the human heart is encouraged to do evil.

Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him!

“Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it.”