<p class="poetry">How long will you vacillate,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">you who were once like an unfaithful daughter?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For I, the <sc>Lordsc>, promise<n id="3" /> to bring about something new<n id="4" /> on the earth,p> <p class="poetry">something as unique as a woman protecting a man!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">You say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;When will the new moon festival<n id="1" /> be over,<n id="2" /> so we can sell grain?p> <p class="poetry">When will the Sabbath end,<n id="3" /> so we can open up the grain bins?<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">We&#8217;re eager<n id="5" /> to sell less for a higher price,<n id="6" />p> <p class="poetry">and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!<n id="7" />p>

and said to Ephron in their hearing, &#8220;Hear me, if you will. I pay<n id="1" /> to you the price<n id="2" /> of the field. Take it from me so that I may<n id="3" /> bury my dead there.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, &#8220;You have brought ruin<n id="1" /> on me by making me a foul odor<n id="2" /> among the inhabitants of the land &#8211; among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I<n id="3" /> am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and told him, &#8220;Thus says the <sc>Lordsc>, the God of the Hebrews: &#8216;How long do you refuse<n id="1" /> to humble yourself before me?<n id="2" /> Release my people so that they may serve me!

<p class="bodytext">Pharaoh&#8217;s servants said to him, &#8220;How long<n id="1" /> will this man be a menace<n id="2" /> to us? Release the people so that they may serve the <sc>Lordsc> their God. Do you not know<n id="3" /> that Egypt is destroyed?&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to Samuel, &#8220;How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel.<n id="1" /> Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem,<n id="2" /> for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Abner called out to Joab, &#8220;Must the sword devour forever? Don&#8217;t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?&#8221;

Elijah approached all the people and said, &#8220;How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision?<n id="1" /> If the <sc>Lordsc> is the true God,<n id="2" /> then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!&#8221; But the people did not say a word.

Then the king, with his consort<n id="1" /> sitting beside him, replied, &#8220;How long would your trip take, and when would you return?&#8221; Since the king was amenable to dispatching me,<n id="2" /> I gave him a time.

<p class="poetry">How long must the land be parched<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and the grass in every field be withered?p> <p class="poetry">How long<n id="2" /> must the animals and the birds diep> <p class="poetry">because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For these people boast,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;God<n id="4" /> will not see what happens to us.&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed!<n id="1" /> Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true,<n id="2" /> mine or theirs.&#8217;

<p class="bodytext">Then I heard a holy one<n id="1" /> speaking. Another holy one said to the one who was speaking, &#8220;To what period of time does the vision pertain &#8211; this vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the destructive act of rebellion and the giving over of both the sanctuary and army to be trampled?&#8221;

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;But all these nations will someday taunt him<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and ridicule him with proverbial sayings:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">(How long will this go on?)<n id="4" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">he who gets rich by extortion!&#8217;<n id="5" />p>

The angel of the <sc>Lordsc> then asked, &#8220;<sc>Lordsc> who rules over all,<n id="1" /> how long before you have compassion on Jerusalem<n id="2" /> and the other cities of Judah which you have been so angry with for these seventy years?&#8221;<n id="3" />