<p class="poetry">Who handed Jacob over to the robber?p> <p class="poetry">Who handed Israel over to the looters?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Was it not the <sc>Lordsc>, against whom we sinned?p> <p class="poetry">They refused to follow his commands;p> <p class="poetry">they disobeyed his law.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Remember these things, O Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">O Israel, for you are my servant.p> <p class="poetry">I formed you to be my servant;p> <p class="poetry">O Israel, I will not forget you!<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">For you are our father,p> <p class="poetry">though Abraham does not know usp> <p class="poetry">and Israel does not recognize us.p> <p class="poetry">You, <sc>Lordsc>, are our father;p> <p class="poetry">you have been called our protector from ancient times.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>, who is the inheritance<n id="1" /> of Jacob&#8217;s descendants,<n id="2" /> is not like them.p> <p class="poetry">He is the one who created everything.p> <p class="poetry">And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">He is known as the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I know Ephraim all too well;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the evil of<n id="2" /> Israel is not hidden from me.p> <p class="poetry">For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim;p> <p class="poetry">Israel has defiled itself.<n id="3" />p>

&#8220;El, God, the <sc>Lordsc>!<n id="1" /> El, God, the <sc>Lordsc>! He knows the truth!<n id="2" /> Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="3" /> don&#8217;t spare us<n id="4" /> today!

<p class="bodytext">So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they<n id="1" /> all came before him.p><t /><p class="bodytext">But the Israelite soldiers<n id="2" /> had all fled to their own homes.<n id="3" />

When it was time for the evening offering,<n id="1" /> Elijah the prophet approached the altar<n id="2" /> and prayed: &#8220;O <sc>Lordsc> God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove<n id="3" /> today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

Messengers<n id="1" /> delivered the letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah.p> <p class="bodytext">This royal edict read:<n id="2" /> &#8220;O Israelites, return to the <sc>Lordsc> God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may return<n id="3" /> to you who have been spared from the kings of Assyria.<n id="4" />

A Passover like this had not been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had observed a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and the residents of Jerusalem.

<p class="poetry">So now the <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">the one who formed me from birth<n id="1" /> to be his servant &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">he did this<n id="2" /> to restore Jacob to himself,p> <p class="poetry">so that Israel might be gathered to him;p> <p class="poetry">and I will be honored<n id="3" /> in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s sight,p> <p class="poetry">for my God is my source of strength<n id="4" /> &#8211;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Therefore this is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and your sons and daughters will die violently.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Your land will be given to others<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and you will die in a foreign<n id="4" /> land.p> <p class="poetry">Israel will certainly be carried into exile<n id="5" /> away from its land.&#8217;&#8221;p>

Uriah replied to David, &#8220;The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord&#8217;s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations<n id="1" /> with my wife? As surely as you are alive,<n id="2" /> I will not do this thing!&#8221;