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And the Lord said to me: “Take up for yourself a large book, and with a man’s pen write in it: ‘Take away the spoils quickly; plunder swiftly.’ ”
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And I summoned to myself faithful witnesses: Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.
3
And I joined with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Call his name: ‘Rush to take away the spoils; Hurry to be plundered.’
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For before the boy knows how to call to his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be taken away, in the sight of the king of the Assyrians.”
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And the Lord spoke to me further, saying:
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“Because this people has cast aside the waters of Shiloah, which go forth silently, and has instead chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
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for this reason, behold, the Lord will lead over them the waters of a river, strong and plentiful: the king of the Assyrians with all his glory. And he will rise up throughout all his streams, and he will overflow all his banks.(a)
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And he will pass through Judah, inundating it, and he will cross over and arrive, even at its neck. And he will extend his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
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O people, gather together, and be conquered! All distant lands, listen! Be strengthened, and be conquered! Gird yourselves, and be conquered!
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Undertake a plan, and it will be dissipated! Speak a word, and it will not be done! For God is with us.
A Call to Fear God
(Ecclesiastes 8:10–13)
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For the Lord said this to me, and he has instructed this to me with a strong hand, lest I go forth in the way of this people, saying:
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“You should not say ‘It is conspiracy!’ For all that this people speaks is a conspiracy. And you should not be frightened or alarmed with their fear.
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Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your dread, and let him be your fear.
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And so shall he be a sanctification to you. But he will be a stone of offense and a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, and a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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And very many of them will stumble and fall, and they will be broken and entangled and seized.
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Bind the testimony, seal the law, among my disciples.”
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And I will wait for the Lord, who has concealed his face from the house of Jacob, and I will stand before him.
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Behold: I and my children, whom the Lord has given to me as a sign and a portent, in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.
Darkness and Light
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And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?(b) (c) (d)
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And this is, moreover, for the sake of the law and the testimony. But if they do not speak according to this Word, then he will not have the morning light.
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And he will pass by it; he will fall and become hungry. And when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will speak evil against his king and his God, and he will lift himself upward.
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And he will gaze downward to the earth, and behold: tribulation and darkness, dissolution and distress, and a pursuing gloom. For he will not be able to fly away from its distress.(e)
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