Judges 21:3

Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.

In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.

for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.”

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.

For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.

Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

When it rested, he said, “Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”

Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.

Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.

You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.

Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says Yahweh.

“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?

You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;

But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.

“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.

Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.

Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.

Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?

Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!

I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yahweh.

Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh.” ’

“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep.”

“Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.

Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

“He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.”

We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”

All these servants of yours will come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, “Get out, with all the people who follow you;” and after that I will go out.’ ” He went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against Yahweh. We will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us.” Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country.

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.

Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”

He was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yahweh defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us and save us out of the hand of our enemies.”

Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you; for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever.

When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.

How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.

God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?

Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,

Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.

The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against Yahweh.

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

They will comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; then you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid for you, when I brandish my sword before them. They will tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.”