The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate. Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on.

He said to me, “Son of man, the Lord GOD says: ‘These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they make it, to offer burnt offerings on it, and to sprinkle blood on it. You shall give to the Levitical priests who are of the offspring of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘a young bull for a sin offering. You shall take of its blood and put it on its four horns, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around. You shall cleanse it and make atonement for it that way. You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place of the house, outside of the sanctuary.

Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high. The LORD administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony at the proper time, to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city. Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning! Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things. Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.

They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon. You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.” You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. All the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Nergal Sharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim the Rabsaris, Nergal Sharezer the Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.” I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly. Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.

yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets; before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”