Lamentations 1:13

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?

He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.

For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”

For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;

Let them be disappointed and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish;

Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!

They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.

Now I will shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations.

“ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the middle of Babylon he will die.

I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.

“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;

“ ‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

Know therefore today that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.

So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.

know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes.

For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.

“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.

Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.

Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me.

My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.

So I was left alone, and saw this great vision. No strength remained in me; for my face grew deathly pale, and I retained no strength.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Yahweh comes on you, before the day of Yahweh’s anger comes on you.

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.

but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.

I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.

You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs.

Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.

Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’

He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”

I will also spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there.

I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, with great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.

Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.

Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.

Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.

Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.

Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.

Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion.

A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.

‘Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house will be brought out to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women will say, “Your familiar friends have turned on you, and have prevailed over you. Your feet are sunk in the mire, they have turned away from you.”

Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.’

‘You said, “Woe is me now! For Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain! I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.” ’

“Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”

For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.

The Lord Yahweh says: “I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they will bring you up in my net.

When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.

punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,

Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

for our God is a consuming fire.