As he approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen:

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship and false humility achieved by an unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence.

“‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor may be used on his head until the time is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, and he must let the locks of hair on his head grow long.

So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign.

At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought out the Levites from all the places they lived to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication joyfully with songs of thanksgiving and songs accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.

“Then he is to offer up the fat of the sin offering in smoke on the altar,

May God bless us! Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves.

Wail like a young virgin clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of her husband-to-be.

He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple and did a lot of work on the wall in the area known as Ophel.

The Lord made them secure, in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could resist them.

When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket!

This is a message about the animals in the Negev: Through a land of distress and danger, inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, by snakes and darting adders, they transport their wealth on the backs of donkeys, their riches on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot help them.

All the people living in Jerusalem and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the Lord. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

When they finished dividing the land into its regions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun some land.

Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners, who speak lies, and make false promises.

For at that time everyone will get rid of the silver and gold idols your hands sinfully made.

“I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before God’s angels.

God said, “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac – and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.”

Pharaoh will not listen to you. I will reach into Egypt and bring out my regiments, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.