And he said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle [is] not yours, but God's.

" Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld [by Me] from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:

" Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I [am] He, I [am] the First, I [am] also the Last.

Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD [brings] a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land.

"Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours [is] the judgment, Because you have been a snare to Mizpah And a net spread on Tabor.

And I said: "Hear now, O heads of Jacob, And you rulers of the house of Israel: [Is it] not for you to know justice?

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." '

"Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them," says the LORD of hosts.

"At the same time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."

"Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, 'The two families which the LORD has chosen, He has also cast them off'? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.

'then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, [so] that I will not take [any] of his descendants [to be] rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.' "

"As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: 'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and [for] all the house of Israel, his companions.'

"Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

Also [it was] I [who] brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you forty years through the wilderness, To possess the land of the Amorite.