Joshua said to him, "My son, tell the truth here before the LORD, the God of Israel, and confess. Tell me now what you have done. Don't try to hide it from me."

You must make these models of the tumors and of the mice that are ravaging your country, and you must give honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will stop punishing you, your gods, and your land.

Praise the LORD, all people on earth; praise his glory and might.

Praise the LORD's glorious name; bring an offering and come into his Temple.

I looked at the earth---it was a barren waste; at the sky---there was no light.

Be grateful for every year you live. No matter how long you live, remember that you will be dead much longer. There is nothing at all to look forward to.

So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, "I don't enjoy life."

That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away.

When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.

or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

The people say, "Now we know why God does not save us from those who oppress us. We hope for light to walk by, but there is only darkness,

The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken.

I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.

Jesus answered, "The light will be among you a little longer. Continue on your way while you have the light, so that the darkness will not come upon you; for the one who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

The road of the wicked, however, is dark as night. They fall, but cannot see what they have stumbled over.

And another scripture says, "This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall." They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.

If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.

But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.

We hoped for peace and a time of healing, but it was no use; terror came instead.

LORD, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate the people of Zion? Why have you hurt us so badly that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace, but nothing good happened; we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

The people say, "Now we know why God does not save us from those who oppress us. We hope for light to walk by, but there is only darkness,

For help that never came, we looked until we could look no longer. We kept waiting for help from a nation that had none to give.

Yet you left us helpless among wild animals; you abandoned us in deepest darkness.

The LORD then said to Moses, "Raise your hand toward the sky, and a darkness thick enough to be felt will cover the land of Egypt."

Other nations will be covered by darkness, But on you the light of the LORD will shine; The brightness of his presence will be with you.