The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at that time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, and say, ‘The LORD says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah won’t escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes; and he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” says the LORD, “though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper”’?”

When he established the heavens, I was there. When he set a circle on the surface of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when the springs of the deep became strong, when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before him, rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was with the sons of men.

“On the second day you shall offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without defect and a ram out of the flock without defect. You shall bring them near to the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to the LORD. “Seven days you shall prepare every day a goat for a sin offering. They shall also prepare a young bull and a ram out of the flock, without defect. Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify it. So shall they consecrate it. When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar and your peace offerings. Then I will accept you,’ says the Lord GOD.”

But that you also may know my affairs, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make known to you all things. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know our state and that he may comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Amen.

“For three things the earth trembles, and under four, it can’t bear up: For a servant when he is king, a fool when he is filled with food, for an unloved woman when she is married, and a servant who is heir to her mistress.

A meditation by David, which he sang to the LORD, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite.

LORD, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver. LORD, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have plundered him who without cause was my adversary), let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah. Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

At the sound of the cry of your pilots, the pasture lands will shake. All who handle the oars, the mariners and all the pilots of the sea, will come down from their ships. They will stand on the land, and will cause their voice to be heard over you, and will cry bitterly. They will cast up dust on their heads. They will wallow in the ashes. They will make themselves bald for you, and clothe themselves with sackcloth. They will weep for you in bitterness of soul, with bitter mourning.

Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him, and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.

Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says the LORD. The LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of Armies, their God, in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.