<p class="poetry">I will make up for the years<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that the <i>&#8216;arbehi>-locust<n id="2" /> consumed your crops<n id="3" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">the <i>yeleqi>-locust, the <i>hasili>-locust, and the <i>gazami>-locust &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">my great army<n id="4" /> that I sent against you.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;But surely I gave<n id="1" /> you no food to eat in any of your cities;p> <p class="poetry">you lacked food everywhere you live.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Still you did not come back to me.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> is speaking!p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Woe<n id="1" /> to those who wish for the day of the <sc>Lord!sc>p> <p class="poetry">Why do you want the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s day of judgment to come?p> <p class="poetry">It will bring darkness, not light.p>

<p class="poetry">Residents<n id="1" /> of Shaphir,<n id="2" /> pass by in nakedness and humiliation!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The residents of Zaanan can&#8217;t leave their city.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Beth Ezel<n id="5" /> mourns,<n id="6" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;He takes from you what he desires.&#8221;<n id="7" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">I said,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Listen, you leaders<n id="1" /> of Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">you rulers of the nation<n id="2" /> of Israel!p> <p class="poetry">You ought to know what is just,<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;For the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says, &#8216;As I had planned to hurt<n id="1" /> you when your fathers made me angry,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8216;and I was not sorry,

I am about to discipline your children<n id="1" /> and will spread offal<n id="2" /> on your faces,<n id="3" /> the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication<n id="1" /> will rise with healing wings,<n id="2" /> and you will skip about<n id="3" /> like calves released from the stall.

Look, I will send you Elijah<n id="1" /> the prophet before the great and terrible day of the <sc>Lordsc> arrives.

But if your own land<n id="1" /> is impure,<n id="2" /> cross over to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s own land,<n id="3" /> where the <sc>Lordsc> himself lives,<n id="4" /> and settle down among us.<n id="5" /> But don&#8217;t rebel against the <sc>Lordsc> or us<n id="6" /> by building for yourselves an altar aside from the altar of the <sc>Lordsc> our God.

know for certain that the <sc>Lordsc> our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you;<n id="1" /> they will be a whip that tears<n id="2" /> your sides and thorns that blind<n id="3" /> your eyes until you disappear<n id="4" /> from this good land the <sc>Lordsc> your God gave you.p>

<p class="bodytext">I also told the priests and all the people, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that<n id="1" /> the valuable articles taken from the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon.<n id="2" /> But they are prophesying a lie to you.

Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old<n id="1" /> must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants.

When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.&#8221;p>

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know<n id="1" /> that you are honest men and not spies.<n id="2" /> Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">They replied, &#8220;The man questioned us<n id="1" /> thoroughly<n id="2" /> about ourselves and our family, saying, &#8216;Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?&#8217;<n id="3" /> So we answered him in this way.<n id="4" /> How could we possibly know<n id="5" /> that he would say,<n id="6" /> &#8216;Bring your brother down&#8217;?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Go and bring together<n id="1" /> the elders of Israel and tell them, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc>, the God of your fathers,<n id="2" /> appeared<n id="3" /> to me &#8211; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob &#8211; saying, &#8220;I have attended carefully<n id="4" /> to you and to what has been done<n id="5" /> to you in Egypt,

I will bring you to the land I swore to give<n id="1" /> to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob &#8211; and I will give it to you<n id="2" /> as a possession. I am the <sc>Lord!&#8217;sc>&#8221;p>

&#8220;When Pharaoh says to you, &#8216;Do<n id="1" /> a miracle,&#8217; and you say to Aaron, &#8216;Take your staff and throw it down<n id="2" /> before Pharaoh,&#8217; it will become<n id="3" /> a snake.&#8221;

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see<n id="1" /> the blood I will pass over you,<n id="2" /> and this plague<n id="3" /> will not fall on you to destroy you<n id="4" /> when I attack<n id="5" /> the land of Egypt.<n id="6" />p>