The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

The door posts of the nave were squared. As for the face of the nave, its appearance was as the appearance of the temple. The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits. Its corners, its base, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.” The temple and the sanctuary had two doors. The doors had two leaves each, two turning leaves: two for the one door, and two leaves for the other. There were made on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm trees, like those made on the walls. There was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside. There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch. This is how the side rooms of the temple and the thresholds were arranged.

For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you will be brought out of the middle of it. You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord GOD. “I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. You will fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. This will not be your cauldron, neither will you be the meat in the middle of it. I will judge you in the border of Israel. You will know that I am the LORD, for you have not walked in my statutes. You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”’”

Therefore the LORD of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.

“How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves. Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it. I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.

“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath. There will be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it. So I will break down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered. It will fall, and you will be consumed in the middle of it. Then you will know that I am the LORD. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have plastered it with whitewash. I will tell you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it— to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’” says the Lord GOD.’”

But from those who were reputed to be important—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised— for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles— and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck, The LORD says: “Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east. They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, ‘Terror on every side!’ Flee! Wander far off! Dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor,” says the LORD; “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. Arise! Go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care,” says the LORD; “that has neither gates nor bars, that dwells alone. Their camels will be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a plunder. I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of their beards cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them,” says the LORD. Hazor will be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever. No man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.”

The LORD’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Will wood be taken of it to make anything? Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel on it? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work? Behold, when it was whole, it was suitable for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it has been burned, will it yet be suitable for any work?”