<p class="poetry">When my life<n id="1" /> was ebbing away,<n id="2" /> I called out to<n id="3" /> the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">and my prayer came to your holy temple.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Listen, all you nations!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">The sovereign <sc>Lordsc> will testify<n id="3" /> against you;p> <p class="poetry">the <sc>Lordsc> will accuse you<n id="4" /> from his majestic palace.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">Be silent before the Lord <sc>Godsc>,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">for the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s day of judgment<n id="2" /> is almost here.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> has prepared a sacrificial meal;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">he has ritually purified<n id="5" /> his guests.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius&#8217; second year,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> spoke again to the prophet Haggai:<n id="2" />

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;

But I (the <sc>Lordsc> says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem<n id="1" /> and the source of glory in her midst.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then the <sc>Lordsc> will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord <sc>Godsc> will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds.

The <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards,<n id="1" /> full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar.<n id="2" />

You have said, &#8216;It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped<n id="1" /> by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all?<n id="2" />

He prayed to the <sc>Lordsc> and said, &#8220;Oh, <sc>Lordsc>, this is just what I thought<n id="1" /> would happen<n id="2" /> when I was in my own country.<n id="3" /> This is what I tried to prevent<n id="4" /> by attempting to escape to Tarshish!<n id="5" /> &#8211; because I knew<n id="6" /> that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger<n id="7" /> and abounding<n id="8" /> in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment.<n id="9" />

If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the <sc>Lordsc> for a special votive offering<n id="1" /> or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable;<n id="2" /> it must have no flaw.<n id="3" />p>

Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the <sc>Lordsc>. And that person must be cut off from Israel,<n id="1" /> because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.p>

and if his father has no brothers, then you are to give his inheritance to his relative nearest to him from his family, and he will possess it. This will be for the Israelites a legal requirement,<n id="1" /> as the <sc>Lordsc> commanded Moses.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work, and you must keep a festival to the <sc>Lordsc> for seven days.

If a man<n id="1" /> makes a vow<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> or takes an oath<n id="3" /> of binding obligation on himself,<n id="4" /> he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised.<n id="5" />p>

&#8220;O, Lord <sc>Godsc>,<n id="1" /> you have begun to show me<n id="2" /> your greatness and strength.<n id="3" /> (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?)

You must by all means lend<n id="1" /> to him and not be upset by doing it,<n id="2" /> for because of this the <sc>Lordsc> your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt.

The person who pays no attention<n id="1" /> to the priest currently serving the <sc>Lordsc> your God there, or to the verdict &#8211; that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments<n id="1" /> I am giving<n id="2" /> you today (namely, to love the <sc>Lordsc> your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities<n id="3" /> to these three.

Joshua prayed,<n id="1" /> &#8220;O, Master, <sc>Lordsc>! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us?