Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has produced all this wealth from our father’s property.”
They followed the Arameans as far as the Jordan, and the whole route was strewn with garments and other objects that the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.
The inhabitants of this coastland shall say on that day, “See what has happened to those we hoped in, to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! What escape is there for us now?”
See, the Lord goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood shed upon it, and no longer conceal the slain.
Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon.”
You now who are doomed, what are you doing dressing in purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Enlarging your eyes with kohl? You beautify yourself in vain! Your lovers reject you, they seek your life.
Over the mountains I shall break out in cries of lamentation, over the pastures in the wilderness, in a dirge: They are scorched, and no one crosses them, no sound of lowing cattle; Birds of the air as well as beasts, all have fled and are gone.
When Ephraim saw his infirmity, and Judah his sore, Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he cannot heal you, nor take away your sore.
They have come, the days of punishment! they have come, the days of recompense! Let Israel know it! “The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!” Because your iniquity is great, great, too, is your hostility.
The best of them is like a brier, the most honest like a thorn hedge. The day announced by your sentinels! Your punishment has come; now is the time of your confusion.
Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them. On the day of the Lord’s wrath, in the fire of his passion, all the earth will be consumed. For he will make an end, yes, a sudden end, of all who live on the earth.
They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” The Cleansing of the Temple.
The Lord will raise up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, that swoops down like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that if they speak of you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation. Christian Citizens.