I pray you, O God, remember to my credit everything that I have done for this people.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help, but still it does not come.

O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you.

I prayed, "Hear how they make fun of us, O God! Let their ridicule fall on their own heads. Let them be robbed of everything they have, and let them be taken as prisoners to a foreign land.

Don't forgive the evil they do and don't forget their sins, for they have insulted us who are building."

Remember, God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.

Do not let proud people attack me or the wicked make me run away.

See where evil people have fallen. There they lie, unable to rise.

The proud have set a trap for me; they have laid their snares, and along the path they have set traps to catch me.

My Sovereign LORD, my strong defender, you have protected me in battle.

Don't let my enemies be victorious; make their threats against me fall back on them.

May those who accuse others falsely not succeed; may evil overtake violent people and destroy them.

Then I prayed, "Almighty LORD, you are a just judge; you test people's thoughts and feelings. I have placed my cause in your hands; so let me watch you take revenge on these people."

So the LORD Almighty said, "I will punish them! Their young men will be killed in war; their children will die of starvation.

Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.

Alexander the metalworker did me great harm; the Lord will reward him according to what he has done.

Be on your guard against him yourself, because he was violently opposed to our message.

If you see a believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give that person life. This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death. But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that.

'How?' the LORD asked. The spirit replied, 'I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.' The LORD said, 'Go and deceive him. You will succeed.' "

Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, "Since when did the LORD's spirit leave me and speak to you?"

In a single day the LORD will punish Israel's leaders and its people; he will cut them off, head and tail.

The old and honorable men are the head---and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies!

I, the LORD, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land---I will kill them in war and by starvation.

When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing."

That same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me

Then Hananiah took the yoke off my neck, broke it in pieces,

Then I told Hananiah this, and added, "Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie.

those prophets who assured Jerusalem that all was well, when all was not well!" The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

The LORD said, "Now, mortal man, look at the women among your people who make up predictions. Denounce them

"Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves.

Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people.

For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear; they will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible.

As Jannes and Jambres were opposed to Moses, so also these people are opposed to the truth---people whose minds do not function and who are failures in the faith.

The beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had performed miracles in his presence. (It was by those miracles that he had deceived those who had the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped the image of the beast.) The beast and the false prophet were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.