Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
Why so much chaos, so much hell on earth, even now in this nation that was once a haven? The above statement, Malachi 3:7, tells of what any “woke” Christian (meaning awakened by Christ in us) knows is the root of the problem, it (the verse) and those following describing it (the problem) and its cure.
The beginning verses of the same chapter tell of the judgment of God, which is to send a messenger, in His name, to illuminate the cause and the cure. What needs to be remedied are the ideas and ways men have taught and put in the place of God’s good judgment, of which he reminds us. As now, while this is happening, the ignorant and the evil reject His advice and offer more of the same agitation and confusion (mental chaos), concealed in their same old snake oil (which does nothing except further intoxicating now deluded minds).
Malachi 3
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightsome land, says the LORD of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?
14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb [where God taught us His ways and freed our minds from the corrupt ideas {still} holding us captive] for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet [the destroyer of idols, by this word of the LORD God Almighty] before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse [not the same word as used elsewhere in Malachi – here it is cherem, meaning utter destruction].
Malachi 2
1 And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
4 And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
10 Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god [Babylon – foolishness and confusion].
12 The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offer an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have you done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regards not the offering any more, or receives it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet you say, Wherefore? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth [the knowledge of God and His wisdom].
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
The curse is the natural (law) consequence of following man’s corrupt and evil ideas and ways, just as the blessing comes by following God’s wisdom (supreme ideas) and acting with the forethought and foresight they generate. Chapter 2 above speaks of the curse coming when God’s truth, knowledge, and law are no longer spoken by the priests and Levites, and when Judah has profaned the LORD’s holiness with their abominations (replacing the teaching of Jerusalem: peace and civilization, with the confusion and chaos that come with worshiping idols, meaning men’s ideas). Later, in chapter 3, we are told of Judah, after being purified by this refining fire, returning to his former state, and his offering (the words of his mouth) again acceptable (pleasing), as in days of old.
These passages are referring us to Genesis 49 and the words of Jacob as he gathers his son and tells them of what shall befall them in these last days. This chapter should be read in the context of the deeper understanding the LORD has already revealed in these refining messages.
Genesis 49
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, you art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch. [This is telling of the strength departing, as he went into his Father’s wife – see 1 Corinthians 5:1, and remember our recent study of the same.]
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not you into their secret [cowd, the counsel of the wicked – see Psalms 64:2 below]; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not you united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed [‘arar – the same curse mentioned in Malachi 2:2 & 3:9] be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them [these wicked priests and Levites] in Israel.
8 Judah [the leaders of God’s people – in whom the LORD’s strength returns], you art he whom your brethren shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp [the children of the Lion of Judah – see Isaiah 8, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, haste to the spoil and quick to the prey; and verse 17 & 18]: from the prey, my son, you art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion [as in the days of old]; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet [birthed from His belly], until Shiloh [shalah – tranquility, from shalal, as above, from Isaiah 8 {verse 1 & 3} identifying Judah as the elect, the children of the Lion of Judah, spoken of in Isaiah 8:18]; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine [as we have seen, this identifies the elect, Judah, in whom the LORD comes into Jerusalem {again}]; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. [This tells of the destination the travelers {Hebrews and pilgrims} have reached, their end as fishers of men],
14 Issachar [there is his reward] is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute [the LORD in us then doing His work, and the land is at peace and civilized].
16 Dan [God’s judgment] shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels [the works of the powers of the earth], so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad [the complete {unified} assembly of God’s people], a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher [happiness] his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali [those wrestling with God, unaware] is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words.
22 Joseph [Jehovah has continued – as a son] is a fruitful bough [parah ben – fruit as offspring, progeny], even a fruitful bough [parah ben] by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow [see Zechariah 9 below] abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence [then and there] is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [of all those who have come before me] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills [the end of the age, world without end]: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin [the children that are God’s right hand – His power] shall ravin [tear in pieces] as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night the shall divide the spoil. [Again see Isaiah 8:1, 3 & 18, which, as here, define the unified body of Christ.]
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. [see Malachi 4:6 above]
Isaiah 8
1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take you a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz [haste to the spoil and quick to the prey; this is telling of being quickened, brought to life from the dead, away from their corrupt teaching and ways, back to God].
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah [Jehovah is my light {understanding}] the priest, and Zechariah [who Jehovah has remembered] the son of Jeberechiah [who Jehovah has blessed].
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father [the knowledge of God], and my mother [the wisdom of God], the riches of Damascus [where the work has become silenced] and the spoil of Samaria [the watchtower that has been corrupted by replacing God with idols] shall be taken away before the king of Assyria [declined by steps – degrees].
5 The LORD spoke also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuses the waters of Shiloah [the word sent from God] that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin [those they desired – in whose words they have chosen to trust] and Remaliah’s son [Pekah – opened these gates of the self-destruction of God’s people];
7 Now therefore, behold, the LORD brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria [the degenerate advice that produces after its own kind, ignorance, confusion, and chaos], and all his glory: and he shall come up [swelled with pride in his words that carry death to the masses] over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah [the leaders of God’s people]; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel [into this state and to combat death, God sends His word, to manifest His presence and glory to His children who will receive Him].
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary [a haven]; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. [who have both corrupted themselves with abominations]
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits [spirit of the dead, producing after their own kind], and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter [those using their words to manipulate and deceive others into not listening to God]: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they be looking] for the living [life] to the dead [whose advice is death]?
20 [Shouldn’t they be looking] To the law and to the testimony[?]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry [because they are listening to what can never satisfy the need they have, which is for the ideas and ways of peace and civilization]: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [even deeper ignorance – following the advice that has brought death upon them].
Zechariah 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim [the son of Joseph], and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
12 Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto you;
13 When I have bent Judah [the leaders of God people, the elect] for me, filled the bow with Ephraim [the blessed of God], and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece [the dregs, who are still wallowing in their own mire they have stirred – as a whale in the sea, agitating the waters], and made you as the sword of a mighty man.
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning [understanding]: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet [call His people to assemble in one body], and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. [“I and the children God has given me are for signs and wonders.”]
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids. [again, see Joel 1:10 & 2:19]
Zechariah 10
1 Ask you of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts has visited his flock the house of Judah, and has made them as his goodly horse in the battle.
4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor [leader] together.
5 And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead [founded upon this mountain of the LORD’s ideas and ways] and Lebanon [purity and holiness]; and place shall not be found for them [in these old corrupted places that are now in ruin and on fire].
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea [the pride of wicked], and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria [the degenerates] shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt [the rule of captivity] shall depart away.
12 And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, says the LORD.
Ezekiel 17
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
3 And say, Thus says the LORD God; A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.
5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
9 Say you, Thus says the LORD God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Say now to the rebellious house, Know you not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and has taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;
13 And has taken of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, and has taken an oath of him: he has also taken the mighty of the land:
14 That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand.
15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that does such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
16 As I live, says the LORD God, surely in the place where the king dwells that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and has done all these things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus says the LORD God; As I live, surely mine oath that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and you shall know that I the LORD have spoken it.
22 Thus says the LORD God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.
Ezekiel 31
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art you like in your greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.
6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Because you have lifted up yourself in height, and he has shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15 Thus says the LORD God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18 To whom art you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the LORD God.
Psalms 64
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
