For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything; they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears.

I arose to open for my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh – my fingers flowed with myrrh on the handles of the lock.

The Beloved to the Maidens: My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the flowerbeds of balsam spices, to graze in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

I heard the voice of the sovereign master say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!”

along with the plants by the mouth of the river. All the cultivated land near the river will turn to dust and be blown away.

When you summon her for divorce, you prosecute her; he drives her away with his strong wind in the day of the east wind.

Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

So they took all their troops and went to fight against Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him near the large pool at Gibeon.

Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.”

And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully.

“‘But I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore to give to your fathers.

“‘He gave it to be polished, to be grasped in the hand – the sword is sharpened, it is polished – giving it into the hand of the executioner.

As they wail they will lament over you, chanting: “Who was like Tyre, like a tower in the midst of the sea?”

I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre, because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord.

They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”

All the people of the land will bury them, and it will be a memorial for them on the day I magnify myself, declares the sovereign Lord.

There were hooks three inches long, fastened in the house all around, and on the tables was the flesh of the offering.

Now after you another kingdom will arise, one inferior to yours. Then a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule in all the earth.

I saw a dream that frightened me badly. The things I imagined while lying on my bed – these visions of my mind – were terrifying me.