The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your offspring also would have been as the sand and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With the sound of joyful shouting announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed out. “There is no peace”, says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who doesn’t know how to receive admonition any more. For out of prison he came out to be king; yes, even in his kingdom he was born poor. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the other, who succeeded him. There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which the LORD’s mouth will name. You will also be a crown of beauty in the LORD’s hand, and a royal diadem in your God’s hand. You will not be called Forsaken any more, nor will your land be called Desolate any more; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you, and your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and brought accusation against the Jews. They answered Nebuchadnezzar the king, “O king, live for ever! You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image; and whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not respected you. They don’t serve your gods, and don’t worship the golden image which you have set up.”

The LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is near and my righteousness will soon be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For the LORD says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth. Therefore the LORD has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice. “Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today, we have sinned. We have done wickedly. Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.

Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant? Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night. King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem. Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. I made myself pools of water, to water the forest where trees were grown.

The sun will be no more your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon give light to you, but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will not go down any more, nor will your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will end. Then your people will all be righteous. They will inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. The little one will become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will do this quickly in its time.”

“But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes. Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood, you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?