Israel, you have forgotten the God who rescues you and protects you like a mighty rock. Instead, you plant sacred gardens in order to worship a foreign god.

They forgot their God, their mighty savior, the one who had given them life.

Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can be counted.

It was made by the one who sits on his throne above the earth and beyond the sky; the people below look as tiny as ants. He stretched out the sky like a curtain, like a tent in which to live.

God created the heavens and stretched them out; he fashioned the earth and all that lives there; he gave life and breath to all its people. And now the LORD God says to his servant,

"I am the LORD, your savior; I am the one who created you. I am the LORD, the Creator of all things. I alone stretched out the heavens; when I made the earth, no one helped me.

I am the one who made the earth and created human beings to live there. By my power I stretched out the heavens; I control the sun, the moon, and the stars.

No one helped God spread out the heavens or trample the sea monster's back.

Can you help God stretch out the sky and make it as hard as polished metal?

long ago you created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens.

They will disappear, but you will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish.

you cover yourself with light. You have spread out the heavens like a tent

(You people must tell them that the gods who did not make the earth and the sky will be destroyed. They will no longer exist anywhere on earth.)

The LORD made the earth by his power; by his wisdom he created the world and stretched out the heavens.

The LORD made the earth by his power; by his wisdom he created the world and stretched out the heavens.

You love what is right and hate what is wrong. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has given you the joy of an honor far greater than he gave to your companions."

They will disappear, but you will remain; they will all wear out like clothes.

"Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear.

Remember that I, the LORD Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear.

The LORD says, "Who are these gods that make you afraid, so that you tell me lies and forget me completely? Have you stopped honoring me because I have kept silent for so long?

They did not keep thinking about the country they had left; if they had, they would have had the chance to return.

They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul's hometown of Gibeah have run away.

The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives.

When the Israelites saw the king and his army marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the LORD for help.

Didn't we tell you before we left that this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians. It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert."

The enemy said, 'I will pursue them and catch them; I will divide their wealth and take all I want; I will draw my sword and take all they have.'

But one breath from you, LORD, and the Egyptians were drowned; they sank like lead in the terrible water.

So his wife and all his friends suggested, "Why don't you have a gallows built, seventy-five feet tall? Tomorrow morning you can ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and then you can go to the banquet happy." Haman thought this was a good idea, so he had the gallows built.

Now then, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, oboes, lyres, zithers, harps, and all the other instruments, bow down and worship the statue. If you do not, you will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Do you think there is any god who can save you?"

Then Nebuchadnezzar lost his temper, and his face turned red with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual.

They spread out over the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people and the city that he loves. But fire came down from heaven and destroyed them.

The LORD Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated.

The LORD will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!

The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask, "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble?

Is this the man who destroyed cities and turned the world into a desert? Is this the man who never freed his prisoners or let them go home?"

Let us stay in your land. Protect us from those who want to destroy us." (Oppression and destruction will end, and those who are devastating the country will be gone.

Your old fears of foreign tax collectors and spies will be only a memory.

You will no longer see any arrogant foreigners who speak a language that you can't understand.

An angel of the LORD went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!

One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.

Moses answered, "Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the LORD will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again.

So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.

no wicked people have been happy for long.

but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.

The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;

Our enemies are finished forever; you have destroyed their cities, and they are completely forgotten.

But the LORD is king forever; he has set up his throne for judgment.

I once knew someone wicked who was a tyrant; he towered over everyone like a cedar of Lebanon;

but later I passed by, and he wasn't there; I looked for him, but couldn't find him.

Human anger only results in more praise for you; those who survive the wars will keep your festivals.

You will be driven away from human society, live with wild animals, and eat grass like an ox for seven years. Then you will acknowledge that the Supreme God has power over human kingdoms and that he can give them to anyone he chooses."

The words came true immediately. Nebuchadnezzar was driven out of human society and ate grass like an ox. The dew fell on his body, and his hair grew as long as eagle feathers and his nails as long as bird claws.

When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger---this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.

"A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is crying for her children; she refuses to be comforted, for they are dead."

and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the child are dead."

At once the angel of the Lord struck Herod down, because he did not give honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.

So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

"Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?"

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.