The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water. Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope! Even today I declare that I will restore double to you. For indeed I bend Judah as a bow for me. I have loaded the bow with Ephraim. I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and will make you like the sword of a mighty man. The LORD will be seen over them. His arrow will flash like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of Armies will defend them. They will destroy and overcome with sling stones. They will drink, and roar as through wine. They will be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

When I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. Then behold, there stood before me someone with the appearance of a man. I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, which called and said, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened, and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, for the vision belongs to the time of the end.” Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me and set me upright.

The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it. Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he burns it and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.” The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills. For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her.

Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.

“At the time of the end the king of the south will contend with him; and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships. He will enter into the countries, and will overflow and pass through. He will enter also into the glorious land, and many countries will be overthrown; but these will be delivered out of his hand: Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He will also stretch out his hand on the countries. The land of Egypt won’t escape. But he will have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. The Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow his steps. But news out of the east and out of the north will trouble him; and he will go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. He will plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?” God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.