Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good.

The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king's command. And the decree was issued in Shushan the palace.

A runner shall run to meet a runner, and a herald to a herald, to report to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end;

Seek Jehovah while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, return to Me. And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not waver.

Turn us back to You, O Jehovah, and we will repent; renew our days as of old,

Say to them: As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, I take no delight in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, O house of Israel?

O Israel, return to Jehovah your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

Yet even now turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, declares Jehovah.

Who knows if He will turn and have pity and leave a blessing behind Him, a food offering and a drink offering for Jehovah your God?

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak when it is cut down, whose stump remains. The holy seed is its stump.

And Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came to him and distressed him, and did not help him.

And Pul king of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his hand.

In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.

So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria; and he carried the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into captivity. He brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the River Gozan to this day.

Except Jehovah of Hosts had left us a small remnant, we would be as Sodom; we would be as Gomorrah.