The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry. It will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse their king and their God. They will turn their faces upward, then look to the earth and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.

“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,” says the Lord GOD. “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of my people, neither will they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither will they enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.” “‘Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, “Peace;” and there is no peace. When one builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash. Tell those who plaster it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, will fall. A stormy wind will tear it. Behold, when the wall has fallen, won’t it be said to you, “Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?”

I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me. Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field. Let’s lodge in the villages. Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me. I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.

“My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from the LORD’s fierce anger. Don’t let your heart faint. Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her. Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north,” says the LORD. “As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, go! Don’t stand still! Remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he. I am the first. I am also the last. Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together. “Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? He whom the LORD loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him and he shall make his way prosperous. “Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord GOD has sent me with his Spirit.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘What if there isn’t enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, “You mountains of Israel, hear the LORD’s word. The Lord GOD says: ‘Because the enemy has said against you, “Aha!” and, “The ancient high places are ours in possession!”’ therefore prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;”

Of Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t be quiet. Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says the LORD of Armies. “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.”

“All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son desires to reveal him.” “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.”