The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening. LORD, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals. There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there. These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.

“You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”

Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse doesn’t come to rest. A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools! Don’t answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. One who sends a message by the hand of a fool is cutting off feet and drinking violence.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

LORD, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah. You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger. Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations? Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction. If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying, “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink,” he would be the prophet of this people. I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture. They will swarm with people. He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. Their king passes on before them, with the LORD at their head.

Alas for you who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near, who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall, who strum on the strings of a harp, who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive. The feasting and lounging will end. “The Lord GOD has sworn by himself,” says the LORD, the God of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it. It will happen that if ten men remain in one house, they will die.

Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon commanded Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard concerning Jeremiah, saying, “Take him and take care of him. Do him no harm; but do to him even as he tells you.” So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban, Rabsaris, and Nergal Sharezer, Rabmag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should bring him home. So he lived among the people.

“So he said, ‘The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down and break it in pieces. As for the ten horns, ten kings will arise out of this kingdom. Another will arise after them; and he will be different from the former, and he will put down three kings. He will speak words against the Most High, and will wear out the saints of the Most High. He will plan to change the times and the law; and they will be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. “‘But the judgment will be set, and they will take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end. The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey him.’ “Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts troubled me greatly, and my face was changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart.”

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the LORD’s glory has risen on you! For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan, he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.