The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them.

I, the Lord, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

In a far-off land the Lord will manifest himself to them. He will say to them, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.

Yet in days to come I will reverse Ammon’s ill fortune.” says the Lord.

Say, ‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.’

Therefore, I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets; I will certainly kill you in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment; for my judgment will come forth like the light of the dawn.

But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images.

The Babylonian tyrant pulls them all up with a fishhook; he hauls them in with his throw net. When he catches them in his dragnet, he is very happy.

Because of his success he offers sacrifices to his throw net and burns incense to his dragnet; for because of them he has plenty of food, and more than enough to eat.

Will he then continue to fill and empty his throw net? Will he always destroy nations and spare none?

This is why the sky has held back its dew and the earth its produce.

“‘It then came about that just as I cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory of Egypt. It was very severe; there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again.

After this, the Levites went in to do their work in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did.

When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for this is the time when you can find him!”

you are granted wisdom and discernment. Furthermore I am giving you riches, wealth, and honor surpassing that of any king before or after you.”

For this reason these days are known as Purim, after the name of pur.

So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so.

God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so.

God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” It was so.