<p class="poetry">This is the unfortunate fact<n id="1" /> about everything that happens on earth:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the same fate awaits<n id="3" /> everyone.p> <p class="poetry">In addition to this, the hearts of all people<n id="4" /> are full of evil,p> <p class="poetry">and there is folly in their hearts during their lives &#8211; then they die.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Speak kindly to<n id="1" /> Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> and tell herp> <p class="poetry">that her time of warfare is over,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">that her punishment is completed.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> has made her pay double<n id="5" /> for all her sins.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">For this is what the high and exalted one says,p> <p class="poetry">the one who rules<n id="1" /> forever, whose name is holy:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I dwell in an exalted and holy place,p> <p class="poetry">but also with the discouraged and humiliated,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">in order to cheer up the humiliatedp> <p class="poetry">and to encourage the discouraged.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">The spirit of the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> is upon me,p> <p class="poetry">because the <sc>Lordsc> has chosen<n id="1" /> me.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He has commissioned<n id="3" /> me to encourage<n id="4" /> the poor,p> <p class="poetry">to help<n id="5" /> the brokenhearted,p> <p class="poetry">to decree the release of captives,p> <p class="poetry">and the freeing of prisoners,p>

In those days, your population will greatly increase<n id="1" /> in the land. At that time,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;people will no longer talk about having the ark<n id="2" /> that contains the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s covenant with us.<n id="3" /> They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more!<n id="4" />

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples.<n id="1" /> I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s sight.<n id="2" /> Moreover, none of the people of Israel<n id="3" /> are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

I will give them the desire to acknowledge that I<n id="1" /> am the <sc>Lordsc>. I will be their God and they will be my people. For they will wholeheartedly<n id="2" /> return to me.&#8217;p>

But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you,<n id="1" /> because they are not willing to listen to me,<n id="2" /> for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.<n id="3" />p>

When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate<n id="1" /> it &#8211; even my house &#8211; when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You<n id="2" /> have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices.

This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: No foreigner, who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, will enter into my sanctuary.<n id="1" />p>

And the <sc>Lordsc> smelled the soothing aroma<n id="1" /> and said<n id="2" /> to himself,<n id="3" /> &#8220;I will never again curse<n id="4" /> the ground because of humankind, even though<n id="5" /> the inclination of their minds<n id="6" /> is evil from childhood on.<n id="7" /> I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.p>

So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to<n id="1" /> your servants. For I swear by the <sc>Lordsc> that if you don&#8217;t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!&#8221;p>

The king stood by the pillar and renewed<n id="1" /> the covenant before the <sc>Lordsc>, agreeing to follow<n id="2" /> the <sc>Lordsc> and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being,<n id="3" /> by carrying out the terms<n id="4" /> of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant.<n id="5" />p>

When they ask you, &#8216;Why are you groaning?&#8217; you will reply, &#8216;Because of the report that has come. Every heart will melt with fear and every hand will be limp; everyone<n id="1" /> will faint and every knee will be wet with urine.&#8217;<n id="2" /> Pay attention &#8211; it is coming and it will happen, declares the sovereign <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;p>