Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first fruits of all your crops;

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax,

when he established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep grew strong,

Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge.

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax,

Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits: henna with nard,

Here is the message about Judah and Jerusalem that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz.

But you were brought down to Sheol, to the remote slopes of the pit.

“At that time I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

The grass dries up, the flowers wither, but the decree of our God is forever reliable.”

Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden, O God of Israel, deliverer!

In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, “I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

You people of Israel, listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way.

The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem.

They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.

He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’

(The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)

“Son of man, turn toward Mount Seir, and prophesy against it.

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on this very day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me there.