This is what the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker, says: “You ask me about what will happen. You question me about my children. You give me orders about what I have made.
When they see all their children, the children I made with my hands, they will say my name is holy. They will agree that the Holy One of Jacob is holy, and they will respect the God of Israel.
Now this is what the Lord says. He created you, people of Jacob; he formed you, people of Israel. He says, “Don’t be afraid, because I have saved you. I have called you by name, and you are mine.
This is what the Lord says, who made you, who formed you in your mother’s body, who will help you: “People of Jacob, my servants, don’t be afraid. Israel, I chose you.
How terrible it will be for the child who says to his father, ‘Why are you giving me life?’ How terrible it will be for the child who says to his mother, ‘Why are you giving birth to me?’ ”
This is what the Lord, who saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to do what is good, who leads you in the way you should go.
The God who made you is like your husband. His name is the Lord All-Powerful. The Holy One of Israel is the one who saves you. He is called the God of all the earth.
All of your people will do what is right. They will receive the earth forever. They are the plant I have planted, the work of my own hands to show my greatness.
You are our father. Abraham doesn’t know we are his children, and Israel doesn’t recognize us. Lord, you are our father. You are called “the one who has always saved us.”
Some people say, “Ask the mediums and fortune-tellers, who whisper and mutter, what to do.” But I tell you that people should ask their God for help. Why should people who are still alive ask something from the dead?
“I, the Lord, said, ‘How happy I would be to treat you as my own children and give you a pleasant land, a land more beautiful than that of any other nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘My Father’ and not turn away from me.
They will be crying as they come, but they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead those people by streams of water on an even road where they will not stumble. I am Israel’s father, and Israel is my firstborn son.
“This is what the Lord God says: I will let myself be asked by the people of Israel to do this for them again: I will make their people grow in number like a flock.
“ ‘I will make myself known among my people Israel, and I will not let myself be dishonored anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
Daniel asked his friends to pray that the God of heaven would show them mercy and help them understand this secret so he and his friends would not be killed with the other wise men of Babylon.
“But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, ‘You are not my people,’ but later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
On the day that the Lord gave up the Amorites to the Israelites, Joshua stood before all the people of Israel and said to the Lord: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon. Moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon.”
The Philistine rulers gathered to celebrate and to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They said, “Our god has handed Samson our enemy over to us.”