Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying, “Your servant my husband is dead—you know that your servant feared Adonai. Now the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
I said to them, “As much as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the nations. Now you also are selling your brothers so that they will be sold back to us?” Then they became silent and could not find anything to say.
Israel was kadosh to Adonai, the firstfruits of the harvest. All who devoured him were held guilty. Catastrophe overtook them.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
Everyone finding them devoured them. Their foes said: ‘We’re not guilty!’ Instead, they sinned against Adonai, the habitation of justice—Adonai, the hope of their fathers.”
thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will demand My flock from their hand. I will dismiss them from tending the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves. I will rescue My sheep from their mouth, so they will not be food for them.”
My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. Over all the face of the earth My sheep were scattered. No one searched. No one sought.”
Thus says Adonai: “For three crimes of Israel even for four, I will not relent. For they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes.
“But woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not enter yourselves, nor do you let those enter who are trying to go in.
cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots; and slaves—that is, human souls.
For you say, ‘I am rich, I have made myself wealthy, and I need nothing.’ But you do not know that you are miserable and pitiable and poor and blind and naked.