<p class="poetry">I used you to smash men and women.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash old men and young men.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash young men and young women.p>

<p class="poetry">I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash governors and leaders.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I used you to smash horses and their riders.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash chariots and their drivers.p>

<p class="poetry">You will break them<n id="1" /> with an iron scepter;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">you will smash them like a potter&#8217;s jar!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

These were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">How blessed will be the one who grabs your babiesp> <p class="poetry">and smashes them on a rock!<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">The nations run away when they hear a loud noise;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the nations scatter when you spring into action!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">He will lift a signal flag for the nations;p> <p class="poetry">he will gather Israel&#8217;s dispersed people<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and assemble Judah&#8217;s scattered peoplep> <p class="poetry">from the four corners of the earth.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Babylon,<n id="1" /> you are my war club,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">my weapon for battle.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash nations.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I used you to destroy kingdoms.p>

And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike.<n id="1" /> I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">But the time is coming when I will sendp> <p class="poetry">men against Moab who will empty it out.p> <p class="poetry">They will empty the towns of their people,p> <p class="poetry">then will lay those towns in ruins.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp<n id="1" /> at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">But Samuel said, &#8220;What have you done?&#8221; Saul replied, &#8220;When I saw that the army had started to abandon me<n id="1" /> and that you didn&#8217;t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

My servants will bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea. I will send it by sea in raft-like bundles to the place you designate.<n id="1" /> There I will separate the logs<n id="2" /> and you can carry them away. In exchange you will supply the food I need for my royal court.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">So in this way Jacob&#8217;s sin will be forgiven,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and this is how they will show they are finished sinning:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They will make all the stones of the altars<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">like crushed limestone,p> <p class="poetry">and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">This man, Jeconiah, will be like a broken pot someone threw away.p> <p class="poetry">He will be like a clay vessel<n id="1" /> that no one wants.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Why will he and his children be forced into exile?p> <p class="poetry">Why will they be thrown out into a country they know nothing about?<n id="3" />p>

Then I heard the man clothed in linen who was over the waters of the river as he raised both his right and left hands to the sky<n id="1" /> and made an oath by the one who lives forever: &#8220;It is for a time, times, and half a time. Then, when the power of the one who shatters<n id="2" /> the holy people has been exhausted, all these things will be finished.&#8221;p>