When he made the force of the wind and measured the waters with a gauge.

Do not long for the cover of night to drag people away from their homes.

will you, with him, spread out the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal?

Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.

I praise you constantly and speak of your splendor all day long.

Yet he took notice of their distress, when he heard their cry for help.

Let the loyal followers of the Lord say, “Yes, his loyal love endures!”

My help comes from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth!

even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me.

For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a journey of some distance.

The lips of a fool enter into strife, and his mouth invites a flogging.

A toss of a coin ends disputes, and settles the issue between strong opponents.

a lion, mightiest of the beasts, who does not retreat from anything;

They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, like poplars beside channels of water.

“Something horrible and shocking is going on in the land of Judah:

In the seventh month of that very same year the prophet Hananiah died.

He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness.

The Lord, who is the inheritance of Jacob’s descendants, is not like them. He is the one who created everything. And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own. He is known as the Lord who rules over all.”

The Lord who rules over all says to the people of Jerusalem: “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the Lord has given them to say.

“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you coming to seek me? As surely as I live, I will not allow you to seek me, declares the sovereign Lord.’