2 Kings 9:17

Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when Yahweh returns to Zion.

Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably.

I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.

He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

“Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in Yahweh’s house, for every man who is crazy, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” Then he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

For he has gone down today, and has slain cattle, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king’s sons, the captains of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live king Adonijah!’

When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him rise up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room.

When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”

He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate, for David the man of God had so commanded.

For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.

The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.

Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”

As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”

Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?”

When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.

But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai the son of Ammihur, king of Geshur. David mourned for his son every day.

Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” All the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent.

So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”

When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.”

So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, “the king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!” The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”

Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.

For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp.

They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.

“So you, son of man: I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warnings from me.

A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.”

They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”

He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).”

For whatever man he is that has a defect, he shall not draw near: a blind man, or a lame, or he who has a flat nose, or any deformity,

‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

They went over there and came to the house of the young Levite man, even to the house of Micah, and asked him how he was doing.

When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for God’s ark. When the man came into the city and told about it, all the city cried out.

David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, “How could Yahweh’s ark come to me?”

But Absalom fled. The young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, many people were coming by way of the hillside behind him.

The king said to them, “I will do what seems best to you.” The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.

He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However the kingdom is turned around, and has become my brother’s; for it was his from Yahweh.

She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”

Therefore they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them out to the Syrian army, saying, “Go and see.”

Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “The king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”

A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.

The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.

Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?

His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,

to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’ ” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn’t blow the trumpet, and the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes, and takes any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.

As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David;

He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit?

All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. Then he entered into the boat and returned.

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.

so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.

The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.