<t /><p class="poetry">Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land,p> <p class="poetry">you people of Jerusalem<n id="1" /> who are being besieged.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Why do you remain among the sheepfolds,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">listening to the shepherds playing their pipes<n id="2" /> for their flocks?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">As for the clans of Reuben &#8211; there was intense searching of heart.p>

<p class="poetry">For you defended my just cause;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">from your throne you pronounced a just decision.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">You may feel as secure as a birdp> <p class="poetry">nesting in the cedars of Lebanon.p> <p class="poetry">But oh how you<n id="1" /> will groan<n id="2" /> when the pains of judgment come on you.p> <p class="poetry">They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby.<n id="3" />p>

If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on,<n id="1" /> when he touches it<n id="2" /> he will be unclean until evening,

One of the women said, &#8220;My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Look up at the hilltops and consider this.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">You have had sex with other gods on every one of them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Listen, you<n id="1" /> who sit enthroned above the valley on a rocky plateau.p> <p class="poetry">I am opposed to you,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;You boast, &#8220;No one can swoop down on us.p> <p class="poetry">No one can penetrate into our places of refuge.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Come down from your place of honor;p> <p class="poetry">sit on the dry ground,<n id="1" /> you who live in Dibon.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you;p> <p class="poetry">he will destroy your fortifications.p>

<p class="poetry">The person who lives in Zion says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">Jerusalem says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

The riders then agreed with the angel of the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> who was standing among the myrtle trees, &#8220;We have been walking about on the earth, and now everything is at rest and quiet.&#8221;

Should you not have obeyed the words that the <sc>Lordsc> cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem<n id="1" /> was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah<n id="2" /> were also populated?p>

Elisha said to Gehazi,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Tell her, &#8216;Look, you have treated us with such great respect.<n id="2" /> What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the commander of the army?&#8217;&#8221; She replied, &#8220;I&#8217;m quite secure.&#8221;<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe.<n id="1" /> (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh<n id="2" /> district.) They stated their business,<n id="3" />