because your heart was tender, and you have bowed before Jehovah when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against the ones living in it, to become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and have wept before Me; even also I have heard, a statement of Jehovah.
For He has not despised and not detested the affliction of the afflicted one; and He has not hidden His face from Him, but when He cried to Him, He heard.
For so says the One being high and being lifted up, He who inhabits eternity, and Holy is His name: I dwell in the high and holy place, even with the contrite one and the humble of spirit, to make live the spirit of the humble ones and to make live the heart of the contrite ones.
And My hand has made all these things, even all these things exist, a statement of Jehovah. But I will look toward this one, to the afflicted one, and to the contrite of spirit, even trembling at My Word.
Slay the aged men, the young man, and the virgin, even children, and women, all to destruction. But to every man who has the mark on him, do not come near. And begin from My sanctuary. And they began with the aged men who were before the house.
“and to love Him from all the heart,” and from all the understanding, “and from all the soul, and from all the strength;” and “to love one’s neighbor as oneself” is more than all the burnt offerings and the sacrifices. Lev. 19:18; Deut. 6:4, 5
Therefore, brothers, I call on you through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
But I have all things and more than enough; I have been made full, receiving from Epaphroditus the things from you, a fragrance of sweet smell, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.