Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk.<n id="1" /> In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me?

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I thought,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I will no longer see the <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> in the land of the living,p> <p class="poetry">I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">I have not spoken in secret,p> <p class="poetry">in some hidden place.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I did not tell Jacob&#8217;s descendants,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Seek me in vain!&#8217;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I am the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">the one who speaks honestly,p> <p class="poetry">who makes reliable announcements.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">But I thought,<n id="1" /> &#8220;I have worked in vain;p> <p class="poetry">I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">But the <sc>Lordsc> will vindicate me;p> <p class="poetry">my God will reward me.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;I made myself available to those who did not ask for me;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I appeared to those who did not look for me.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I said, &#8216;Here I am! Here I am!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">to a nation that did not invoke<n id="3" /> my name.p>

<p class="poetry">I thought, &#8220;Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They act like fools because they do not know what the <sc>Lordsc> demands.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They do not know what their God requires of them.<n id="3" />p>

But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

<p class="poetry">I thought,<n id="1" /> &#8216;Certainly you will respect<n id="2" /> me!p> <p class="poetry">Now you will accept correction!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">If she had done so, her home<n id="3" /> would not be destroyed<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">by all the punishments I have threatened.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">But they eagerly sinnedp> <p class="poetry">in everything they did.<n id="6" />p>

So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, &#8220;She is really<n id="1" /> your wife! Why did you say, &#8216;She is my sister&#8217;?&#8221; Isaac replied, &#8220;Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, &#8216;I will multiply your descendants<n id="1" /> like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about<n id="2" /> I will give to your descendants,<n id="3" /> and they will inherit it forever.&#8217;&#8221;

But I have given<n id="1" /> to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.&#8221;p>

Then the <sc>Lordsc> will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.&#8221;p>

Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again.<n id="1" /> Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons,<n id="2" />

So I am legally informing you:<n id="1" /> Acquire it before those sitting here and before the leaders of my people!<n id="2" /> If you want to exercise your right to redeem it, then do so.<n id="3" /> But if not, then tell me<n id="4" /> so I will know.<n id="5" /> For you possess the first option to redeem it; I am next in line after you.&#8221;<n id="6" /> He replied, &#8220;I will redeem it.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Therefore the <sc>Lordsc>, the God of Israel, says, &#8216;I really did say<n id="1" /> that your house and your ancestor&#8217;s house would serve<n id="2" /> me forever.&#8217; But now the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;May it never be!<n id="3" /> For I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed!

Naaman went away angry. He said, &#8220;Look, I thought for sure he would come out, stand there, invoke the name of the <sc>Lordsc> his God, wave his hand over the area, and cure the skin disease.

The <sc>Lordsc> announced, &#8220;I will also spurn Judah,<n id="1" /> just as I spurned Israel. I will reject this city that I chose &#8211; both Jerusalem and the temple, about which I said, &#8220;I will live there.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

David said to God, &#8220;Was I not the one who decided to number the army? I am the one who sinned and committed this awful deed!<n id="1" /> As for these sheep &#8211; what have they done? O <sc>Lordsc> my God, attack me and my family,<n id="2" /> but remove the plague from your people!&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">even if he lives a long, long time,<n id="1" /> but cannot enjoy his prosperity &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">even if he were to live forever<n id="2" /> &#8211; p> <p class="poetry">I would say, &#8220;A stillborn child<n id="3" /> is better off than he is!&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Here is<n id="1" /> another<n id="2" /> enigma<n id="3" /> that occurs on earth:p> <p class="poetry">Sometimes there are righteous people who get what the wicked deserve,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and sometimes there are wicked people who get what the righteous deserve.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">I said, &#8220;This also is an enigma.&#8221;p>