But am I really the one they are hurting? No, they are hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves.

But the LORD himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

that you are making a fatal mistake. You asked me to pray to the LORD our God for you, and you promised that you would do everything that he commands.

They became holy when they were presented at the LORD's altar. So take the fire pans of these who were put to death for their sin, beat them into thin plates, and make a covering for the altar. It will be a warning to the people of Israel."

but people like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die.

The sins of the wicked are a trap. They get caught in the net of their own sin.

Those who do not find me hurt themselves; anyone who hates me loves death."

If you refuse to learn, you are hurting yourself. If you accept correction, you will become wiser.

Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?

But your schemes have brought shame on your family; by destroying many nations you have only brought ruin on yourself.

Why do you make me angry by worshiping idols and by sacrificing to other gods here in Egypt, where you have come to live? Are you doing this just to destroy yourselves, so that every nation on earth will make fun of you and use your name as a curse?

"So then, I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, will turn against you and destroy all Judah.

Death has come in through our windows and entered our palaces; it has cut down the children in the streets and the young men in the marketplaces.

to kill men and women, to slay old and young, to kill boys and girls,

With their swords they killed everyone in the city, men and women, young and old. They also killed the cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

Kill all the males, and also every woman who is not a virgin."

War will bring death in the streets; terrors will strike in the homes. Young men and young women will die; neither babies nor old people will be spared.

Go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Don't leave a thing; kill all the men, women, children, and babies; the cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys."

Saul also had all the other inhabitants of Nob, the city of priests, put to death: men and women, children and babies, cattle, donkeys, and sheep---they were all killed.

My eyes are worn out with weeping; my soul is in anguish. I am exhausted with grief at the destruction of my people. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.

As for the people of Judah who are left and are determined to go and live in Egypt, I will see to it that all of them are destroyed. All of them, great and small, will die in Egypt, either in war or of starvation. They will be a horrifying sight; people will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

None of the people of Judah who are left and have come to Egypt to live will escape or survive. Not one of them will return to Judah, where they long to live once again. No one will return except a few refugees."

I will see to it that you will not prosper, but will be destroyed. All of you will die, either in war or of disease, until not one of you is left.

But a few of you will escape death and return from Egypt to Judah. Then the survivors will know whose words have come true, mine or theirs.