<p class="poetry">Through all that they suffered, he suffered too.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The messenger sent from his very presence<n id="2" /> delivered them.p> <p class="poetry">In his love and mercy he protected<n id="3" /> them;p> <p class="poetry">he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">His people remembered the ancient times.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,p> <p class="poetry">along with the shepherd of<n id="2" /> his flock?p> <p class="poetry">Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them,<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">You assist<n id="1" /> those who delight in doing what is right,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">who observe your commandments.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.p> <p class="poetry">How then can we be saved?<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> is the only true God.p> <p class="poetry">He is the living God and the everlasting King.p> <p class="poetry">When he shows his anger the earth shakes.p> <p class="poetry">None of the nations can stand up to his fury.p>

<p class="poetry">Yet my people have forgotten mep> <p class="poetry">and offered sacrifices to worthless idols!p> <p class="poetry">This makes them stumble along in the way they livep> <p class="poetry">and leave the old reliable path of their fathers.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They have left them to walk in bypaths,p> <p class="poetry">in roads that are not smooth and level.<n id="2" />p>

I will make a lasting covenant<n id="1" /> with them that I will never stop doing good to them.<n id="2" /> I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that<n id="3" /> they will never again turn<n id="4" /> away from me.

For I solemnly swear,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;that Bozrah<n id="2" /> will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses.<n id="3" /> All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,p> <p class="poetry">a place where only jackals live.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">They will ask the way to Zion;p> <p class="poetry">they will turn their faces toward it.p> <p class="poetry">They will come<n id="1" /> and bind themselves to the <sc>Lordsc>p> <p class="poetry">in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.p> <p class="poetry">No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.p> <p class="poetry">For you will lie desolate forever,&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">When their appetites are all stirred up,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will set out a banquet for them.p> <p class="poetry">I will make them drunkp> <p class="poetry">so that they will pass out,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">they will fall asleep forever,p> <p class="poetry">they will never wake up,&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I will make her officials and wise men drunk,p> <p class="poetry">along with her governors, leaders,<n id="1" /> and warriors.p> <p class="poetry">They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">says the King whose name is the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: &#8216;The Philistines<n id="1" /> have exacted merciless revenge,<n id="2" /> showing intense scorn<n id="3" /> in their effort to destroy Judah<n id="4" /> with unrelenting hostility.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword<n id="1" /> at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment.

This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying &#8220;Aha!&#8221; and, &#8220;The ancient heights<n id="1" /> have become our property!&#8221;&#8217;

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them.<n id="1" /> I will establish them,<n id="2" /> increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever.

And you<n id="1" /> will provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a gallon<n id="2" /> of olive oil to moisten the choice flour, as a grain offering to the <sc>Lordsc>; this is a perpetual statute.

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut<n id="1" /> of David.p> <p class="poetry">I will seal its<n id="2" /> gaps,p> <p class="poetry">repair its<n id="3" /> ruins,p> <p class="poetry">and restore it to what it was like in days gone by.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and those far off<n id="2" /> into a mighty nation.p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will reign over them on Mount Zion,p> <p class="poetry">from that day forward and forevermore.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Shepherd your people with your shepherd&#8217;s rod,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the flock that belongs to you,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the one that lives alone in a thicket,p> <p class="poetry">in the midst of a pastureland.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">as they did in the old days.<n id="5" />p>