A remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.

A remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.

The above is Paul, in Romans 9:27 & 28, quoting Isaiah 10:22 & 23 from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). The context is found in Isaiah’s speaking this against the Assyrians who’ve come upon God’s people as the rod of the LORD’s anger, and the staff of His indignation. As we know, the name Assyria means steps, as in an incremental departure from God and His truth, which ends with our enemies in power. Assyria is the pattern of godless communists, who now control the Democrat Party, with its fake news and social media propaganda arms, who’ve gone into self-delusional insanity (the inability to distinguish between reality and their delusions).

Isaiah tells us these evil people, known liars and deceivers (communists), are merely a tool used by the LORD, to remind His people of the truth He told, the warning of where leaving what He taught us would end. He says, then, after we are wakened (as we are), He will punish the fruit of the stout heart (pride and arrogance) of the king of Assyria (the leaders of the communists). Isaiah 10:26 says the end of the LORD’s indignation comes as a scourge, “according to the slaughter of Midian [those causing endless strife] at the rock of Oreb.” It’s referring to Judges 7:25, when, after Gideon put Midian to flight, he sent messages throughout the land calling all God’s people at large to join the battel, and they slew the princes of Midian at the rock of Oreb (words of darkness, ignorance, in which they trusted).

Judges 7
13 And when Gideon [feller of trees – warrior] was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian [strife], and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon [warrior] the son of Joash [given by Jehovah], a man of Israel: for into his hand has God delivered Midian, and all the host.
15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.
18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah [house of trees – powers that are causing strife, who Gideon has cut down] in Zererath [the oppressors], and to the border of Abelmeholah [the field of rejoicing], unto Tabbath [celebration].
23 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali [those who were before wrestling with God and His word, now knowing it is Him], and out of Asher [now rejoicing and celebrating, knowing Him], and out of all Manasseh [now that they remember the God they had forgotten], and pursued after the Midianites [those who, through their lies intentionally cause strife].
24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim [God’s people in these last days], saying, come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah [the people who ford, cross over] and Jordan [the rivers, words of the wicked, that carry all into death]. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.
25 And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb [those covered in darkness, whose words are lie meant to produce ignorance] and Zeeb [the wolves who’ve come among and scattered the sheep]; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.

Isaiah 10 begins with referring to those spoken of earlier in Isaiah 9:14 thru 21, the misleaders said to be the ancient and honorable and the prophets that teach lies (those who prescribe grievousness). Their prescriptions are what causes the fires in the land, which are described as Ephraim and Manasseh against Judah. As we know, Ephraim means second (double) blessing, and Manasseh means those who have forgotten (God), both referring to God’s people at large in these last days (fallen into following lies in church and state). These have joined in a confederation with Assyria (the communists) against the elect remnant (Judah).

Isaiah 9
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 10
1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols [these preceding verses tell of all the places communism {Assyria} has conquered, and in pride/arrogance asks Jerusalem, the foundations of peace and security of God elect remnant, why they think they will escape the same fate]?
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the LORD has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart [pride and arrogance] of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore shall the LORD, the LORD of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer faints.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
23 For the LORD God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, O my people that dwells in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian [those inciting riots] at the rock of Oreb [the darkness, lies and ignorance, in which they trust]: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke [the lies and misleading] from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

The word “decrees” is from the twice used Hebrew word cheqeq, meaning “an enactment, a resolution,” referring us to its only other appearance, Judges 5:15. There it’s rendered “thoughts” as it speaks of Rueben, who we know is the original pattern of the son of perdition (the one son who perishes) because he put himself is his father’s place.

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 are 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.

As previously seen, the word above rendered “excel” is the Hebrew word yathar, meaning “to jut over or exceed; by implication, to excel; (intransitively) to remain or be left; causatively, to leave, cause to abound, preserve.” It’s the LORD referring us to Zechariah 13:8, which speaks about the one third who are “left” (who Ruben, the son of perdition, will not be among).

Zechariah 13
1 In that day there shall be a fountain [of these life-giving waters, this word from God’s mouth] opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
2 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the [false] prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, You shall not live; for you speak lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesies [because the LORD hasn’t said anything to or through them].
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed [because what they’ve said is not true] every one of his vision, when he has prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough [sa’ar – hairy like Esau, Genesis 25:25 – the same as sa’iyr {sa’ir} he-goats, devils mixed among us as misleaders] garment to deceive:
5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.
6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left [yathar] therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

These are the thoughts (cheqeq) of the heart, which the LORD searches out and make known to those believing His report.

Judges 5
1 Then sang Deborah [the bee, the systematic ordering of God’s word, that produces honey that brings His strength out of the carcass] and Barak [His lightning – understanding flashing from the cloud] the son of Abinoam [in which the Father delights] on that day, saying,
2 Praise you the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
4 LORD, when you went out of Seir [sa’iyr – the place of devils, as misleaders in high places, the seats of power of the enemies mixed among us], when you marched out of the field of Edom [of the enemies mixed among us], the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
5 The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar [the sword – the word of God sent against His enemies] the son of Anath [as He answers those who resist and oppose Him], in the days of Jael [the misleaders as he-goats on Seir], the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways.
7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah [order and strength] arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless you the LORD.
10 Speak, you that ride on white asses, you that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.
11 They that are delivered from the noise [qowl – voice] of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.
12 Awake, awake, Deborah [order and strength]: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak [understanding as light], and lead your captivity captive, you son of Abinoam [in who the father delights].
13 Then he made him that remains [the third who are left] have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim [God’s people at large, upon who this second blessing has now come] was there a root of them against Amalek [those in the low places, the valley, of the earth, who’ve made war against God’s people throughout history]; after you, Benjamin, among your people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts [cheqeq – because of the grievousness he has decreed he shall not be left] of heart.
16 Why abode you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben [for the misleading of the sons of perdition] there were great searching of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan [this heap of testimony came after the words of men carried all into death]: and why did Dan remain in ships [why did judgment not enter and rightly divide the waters]? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field [the earth].
19 The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach [at the sands of the shores] by the waters of Megiddo [at this appointed time]; they took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera [those arrayed against them in battle].
21 The river of Kishon [and the trap came upon the world] swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon [My snare upon the world]. O my soul, you have trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horse-hoofs broken by the means of the pransings [because of their pride], the pransings [the pride] of their mighty ones.
23 Curse you Meroz [their strongholds], said the angel of the LORD, curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
26 She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?
29 Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,
30 Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?
31 So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.

The word “divisions,” in verses 15 & 16 above, is from the Hebrew word pluggah, meaning a section, only appears one other time, in 2 Chronicles 35:5. There it’s telling of all the families, the tribes of God’s people, preparing themselves to do according (dadar – order, found in God’s word, as in Deborah above) to the word of the LORD. Ruben’s divisions, the sons of perdition, are to put themselves and their words in the Father’s place.

2 Chronicles 35
1 Moreover Josiah kept a Passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,
3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,
4 And prepare [kuwn] yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions [pluggah] of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.
6 So kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare [kuwn] your brethren, that they may do according [dabar] to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

The preparation, the word of God provided as the pattern to be understood and followed, is referring us back to David’s words in 1 Chronicles 28 & 29.

2 Chronicles 28
19 All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.
20 And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.
21 And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with you for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with you for all manner of workmanship every willing skillful man, for any manner of service: also the princes and all the people will be wholly at your commandment.

2 Chronicles 29
1 Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.
2 Now I have prepared [kuwn] with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.
3 Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared [kuwn] for the holy house.
4 Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal:
5 The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD?
6 Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king’s work, offered willingly,
7 And gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.
8 And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the LORD, by the hand of Jehiel [God lives] the Gershonite [He is our refuge].
9 Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.
10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be you, LORD God of Israel our father, forever and ever.
11 Yours, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.
12 Both riches and honor come of you, and you reign over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
13 Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name.
14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of you, and of your own have we given you.
15 For we are strangers before you, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
16 O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared [kuwn] to build you a house for your holy name comes of your hand, and is all your own.
17 I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto you.
18 O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and prepare [kuwn] their heart unto you:
19 And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision [kuwn].
20 And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the LORD, and the king.
21 And they sacrificed sacrifices unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings unto the LORD, on the morrow after that day, even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel:
22 And did eat and drink before the LORD on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon [peace] the son of David king the second time, and anointed him unto the LORD to be the chief governor, and Zadok [righteous] to be priest.
23 Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.
24 And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king.
25 And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.
26 Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel.

Hebrews 4
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 5
1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, You are my Son, today have I begotten you.
6 As he says also in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.

Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

2 Samuel 23
1 Now these be the last words [debar] of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
2 The Spirit of the LORD spoke [dabar – brought order] by me, and his word was in my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke [dabar] to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
6 But the sons of Belial [false gods who cannot save] shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
7 But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.

Psalms 45
1 My heart is inditing [overflowing] a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 You are fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into your lips: therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty, with your glory and your majesty.
4 And in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and your right hand shall teach you terrible things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of your kingdom is a right scepter.
7 You love righteousness, and hate wickedness: therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
8 All your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made you glad.
9 Kings’ daughters were among your honorable women: upon your right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father’s house;
11 So shall the king greatly desire your beauty: for he is your LORD; and worship you him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre [{as Jael} those who were previously the false rock in which men put their trust in vain] shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat your favor.
13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto you.
15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Instead of your fathers shall be your children [as Solomon], whom you may make princes in all the earth.
17 I will make your name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise you forever and ever.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

As we know the waters are words, hear as venom from a snake’s mouth, meant to poison and rot he minds of those it flows to, like a polluted river into the sea. In the verses before the above, Revelation 12:15, we are told these come as endless, day and night, false accusations against God’s people. We know them as the lies and demonization of innocent people who refuse to surrender and bow to their distorted reality. As we know, the flood is the intensification of lies, the mass delusions spewed by the willfully insane, and the destruction of lives and livelihoods that are their mark (the mark in their head and hand, ideas and works).

Revelation 12
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels [his messengers – broadcasters] were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon [the serpent] cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon [the serpent] was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The above is the LORD referring us to the chapters that will here follow, which describe this time and the self-destruction, the final end, of the evil now destroying the earth and attacking God’s people. He begins with the prophecy He speaks in Jeremiah 27:22, which tells of when all things in His house are carried into Babylon (confusion). He says they will remain there, serving the king of Babylon, until now, when He visits, brings them up and restores them (understanding) to their place.

Jeremiah 27
14 Therefore hearken not unto the words of the [false] prophets that speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon [confusion]: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
15 For I have not sent them, says the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon [the wickedness that was already at work, false prophets saying they have understanding, when its confusion now resulted in all understanding, all the truth of the LORD’s house, carried into confusion, where they have remained until now]: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
19 For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city.
20 Which Nebuchadnezzar [the lies of the false prophet that cause desolation] king of Babylon [confusion that rules the world] took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah [who Jehovah will establish {kuwn}] the son of Jehoiakim [who Jehovah will raise] king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
21 Yea, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, says the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

This final carrying way is what Zachariah sees and records in Zechariah 5. There it’s the roll, the book, the word of God, that flies away. We’re told of the curse that enters the house of those who swear falsely in the LORD’s name. As a result, it’s then seen as an ephah, representing justice, corrupted by an unfaithful woman. She is next seen with another woman (faithful and the unfaithful) flying away into Shinar, another name for Babylon, from the word shenath meaning sleep.

In Daniel 1:2, we’re told the vessels of the house of God were carried into Shinar (sleep in confusion) into the house Nebuchadnezzar’s god.

Zechariah 5
1 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll [megillah].
2 And he said unto me, What see you? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
3 Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that steals shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that swears shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
4 I will bring it forth, says the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that swears falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that goes forth.
6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goes forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
7 And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sit in the midst of the ephah.
8 And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof [the words thereof].
9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
10 Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
11 And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

The “roll” above is the same “volume” of the book, in which the LORD’s appearing is written. This is said in Psalms 40:7 and quoted in Hebrews 10:7. It’s the same roll spoken of in Ezekiel 2 & 3, which Ezekiel, the son of man, eats and becomes the words he says.

Psalms 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established [kuwn] my goings.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; mine ears have you opened: burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [megillah] it is written of me,
8 I delight to do your will, O my God: yea, your law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know.
10 I have not hid your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation: I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not you your tender mercies from me, O LORD: let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: let such as love your salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me: you are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

Hebrews 10
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do your will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 And having a high priest over the house of God;
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
26 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense, says the LORD. And again, The LORD shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions;
33 Partly, whilst you were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst you became companions of them that were so used.
34 For you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.
36 For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition [apoleia]; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Ezekiel 2
1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak unto you.
2 And the spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spoke unto me.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
4 For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD God.
5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
7 And you shall speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
8 But you, son of man, hear what I say unto you; Be not you rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that I give you.
9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll [megillah] of a book was therein;
10 And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

Ezekiel 3
1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that you find; eat this roll [megillah], and go speak unto the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll [mgillah].
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this roll [megillah] that I give you. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have hearkened unto you.
7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
11 And go, get you to them of the captivity, unto the children of your people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus says the LORD God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.

When Zechariah 5:11 tell of the word God in Shinar (place of sleep in confusion), it says there “it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.” As we’ve discussed, “established” is the word kuwn, meaning it is there as a provision (providence), as preparation.

The word “set” is nuwach, meaning “to rest, i.e. settle down.” The deep meaning is in the one other time it appears in Zechariah, Zechariah 6:8, where it speaks of the Spirit of the LORD “quieted” in the north country.

Zechariah 6
8 Then cried he upon me, and spoke unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.
9 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
10 Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai [worldly], of Tobijah [to whom Jehovah is good {not a misleader}], and of Jedaiah [who Jehovah has known], which are come from Babylon, and come you the same day, and go into the house of Josiah [who Jehovah heals] the son of Zephaniah [by Jehovah’s hidden treasures {this word}];
11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua [Jehovah’s Salvation personified] the son of Josedech [who is Jehovah’s righteousness], the high priest;
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
14 And the crowns shall be to Helem [strength], and to Tobijah [to whom Jehovah is good {not a misleader}], and to Jedaiah [who Jehovah has known], and to Hen [favor and grace] the son of Zephaniah [by Jehovah’s hidden treasures {this word}], for a memorial [zikrown, meaning “a memento (or memorable thing, day or writing)” – the things of the house remembered and “restored”] in the temple of the LORD.
15 And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.

The word zikrown refers us to what is written in Malachi 3:16, where it is rendered “remembrance.”

Malachi 3
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 [zikrown] 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.

The word “base,” in Zechariah 5:11, is from the one time used word mekunah, from mekownah, from makown, and all from the word kuwn (established and prepared). The word makown describes the LORD’s habitation, His dwelling place, as in Exodus 15:17.

Exodus15
1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host has he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: your right hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy.
7 And in the greatness of your excellency you have overthrown them that rose up against you: you sent forth your wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
8 And with the blast [ruwach] of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
10 You did blow with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed [bala’] them.
13 You in your mercy have led forth the people which you have redeemed: you have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation.
14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.
15 Then the dukes of Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab [whose mouths are the gates that hold the world in hell], trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still [damam – silent – Amos 5:13 “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.”] as a stone; till your people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which you have purchased.
17 You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place [makown], O LORD, which you have made for you to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands have established [kuwn].
18 The LORD shall reign forever and ever.
19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

Isaiah 4
1 And in that day seven women [Zechariah 4:10 “For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”] shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.
2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
4 When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place [makown] of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

Isaiah 18
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3 All you inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see you, when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear you.
4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling [mekown] place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

Psalms 89
13 You have a mighty arm: strong is your hand, and high is your right hand.
14 Justice and judgment are the habitation [makown] of your throne: mercy and truth shall go before your face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance.
16 In your name shall they rejoice all the day: and in your righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For you are the glory of their strength: and in your favor our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 Then you spoke in vision to your holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
21 With whom my hand shall be established [kuwn]: mine arm also shall strengthen him.

Psalms 97
1 The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.
2 Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation [makown] of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him, and burns up his enemies round about.
4 His lightning enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.
5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.
7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all you gods.
8 Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your judgments, O LORD.
9 For you, LORD, are high above all the earth: you are exalted far above all gods.
10 You that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserves the souls of his saints; he delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Psalms 104
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with honor and majesty.
2 Who covers yourself with light as with a garment: who stretches out the heavens like a curtain:
3 Who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters: who makes the clouds his chariot: who walks upon the wings of the wind:
4 Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
5 Who laid the foundations [makown – His dwelling place] of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of your thunder they hasted away.
8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which you have founded for them.
9 You have set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
10 He sends the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

Psalms 33
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap: he lays up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the heathen to naught: he makes the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation [makown] he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashions their hearts alike; he considers all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in you.

The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.

The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.

The verse that follows the above, from Proverbs 4:18, in contrast, says, the way of the wicked is darkness: they know not at what they stumble. As we well know, this speaks of ignorance borne of arrogance, followed by self-inflicted destruction, which coincides with the perfect day of full understanding. The chapter (Proverbs 4) describes divine instruction, the continuous shining light from which comes God’s knowledge and wisdom.

The “perfect day” is when the enemies of God’s people find themselves snared in a trap of their own making. It is their arrogance in thinking they could use any evil misleading means to gain power and do so without an opposite, more powerful reaction. The knowledge God’s people gained is in the experience: when extreme evil rose, was left unchecked when God’s people were complacent in prosperity, became idle, and there remained silent. This sequence is a law, and will consistently repeat if allowed. Therefore, the lesson is God’s people must stay on the wall, ever vigilant, and her watchmen must be awake, ever ready to warn of coming threats.

The word “perfect” in the title is the Hebrew word kuwn, meaning “properly, to be erect (i.e. stand perpendicular); hence (causatively) to set up, in a great variety of applications, whether literal (establish, fix, prepare, apply), or figurative (appoint, render sure, proper or prosperous).”

It (kuwn) is used several times to lead us to where, in His word, God has foretold the end of the confusion (Babylon) and evil cultivated by the enemies mixed among us. In Jeremiah 51:12, it’s rendered “prepare” in telling of the ambush that comes in the day of the LORD’s vengeance against Babylon, and in verse 15, it’s “established” in describing the world made by His wisdom.

Jeremiah 51
1 Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;
2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
3 Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifts himself up in his brigandine: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her host.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans [those using their words to produce the confusion by which they manipulate and control the masses], and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel [God’s people at large] has not been forsaken, nor Judah [the elect remnant] of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense [the reward she deserves].
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken [with her confusion now turned mass delusion]: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad [insane].
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes [the middle land – also referring to Cyrus, the LORD of the furnace]: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Set up the standard [nec – the pole upon which Moses raised the brazen serpent, as the son of man must be lifted] upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare [kuwn – perfect] the ambushes: for the LORD has both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you that dwells upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against you.
15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established [kuwn – perfected] the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
16 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures. [These are speaking of when the LORD, as now, sends His word from heaven, and His Spirit moves upon them producing understanding. The following verse tells of the words of men as foundationless confusion in which there is no life-giving power.]
17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vanity [worthless], the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
20 You are my battle axe and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;
22 With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
23 I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea [the confusion and those who use their worthless words to intentionally produce it] all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD.
25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroy all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate forever, says the LORD.
27 Set you up a standard [nec – raise up the brazen serpent, the son of man] in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat [to reverse the curse], Minni [to this rightly divided word of God], and Ashchenaz [that shall be as fire scatter upon the land] appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes [those of the middle land, with Cyrus, the LORD of the furnace], the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon [the confusion that rules the world], to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar [the false prophets {the fake news media and the fable making eschatologists} who use their lies to rule/control the masses into ignorance] the king of Babylon [the confusion that rule the world] has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed [bala’ – as the whale swallowed Jonah, as Israel is swallowed in Hosea 8:7 & 8] me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is Sheshach [this tells of Babylon as a sixth part] taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon [the confusion that rules the world] become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel [prominent men as idols] in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up [As He brought Jonah from the belly of the whale – from the underlying cause, the lies of false prophets, agitating the sea] up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor [shmuw’ah – this report, sound doctrine that is as a foreign language to those who only know lies – referring us to Ezekiel 7:26, Isaiah 28:9 & 19, and 53:1] that shall be heard in the land; a rumor [shmuw’ah] shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor [shmuw’ah], and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded [buwsh – disappointed and ashamed, because they don’t reach the end the false prophets have told them of], and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, says the LORD.
49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded [buwsh], because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.
52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, says the LORD.
54 A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans [those who used the lies to manipulate and control the masses]:
55 Because the LORD has spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses [just rewards] shall surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus says the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah [Jehovah rising and raising His people] the prophet commanded Seraiah [Jehovah has prevailed] the son of Neriah [by the light of Jehovah], the son of Maaseiah [Jehovah has become our refuge], when he went with Zedekiah [Jehovah’s right, correctness] the king of Judah [ruled in God’s elect in the land of confusion] into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words;
62 Then shall you say, O LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.
63 And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Verse 15 thru 19 above are almost identically written in Jeremiah 10:12 thru 16, where kuwn is again rendered “established” in telling of perfection coming by the LORD’s wisdom. Verse 7 is quoted in Revelation 15, a chapter we know mentions the song of the Lamb and the song of Moses, the latter referring us to Exodus 15.

Jeremiah 10
1 Hear you the word which the LORD speaks unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you does it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto you.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established [kuwn – perfected] the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
17 Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
18 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
22 Behold, the noise [qowl – voice] of the bruit [shmuw’ah – the rumor, this report] is come, and a great commotion [ra’ash – shaking, earthquake] out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.
24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out your fury upon the heathen that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

Revelation 15
1 And I saw another sign in heaven [referring to what is written in Jeremiah 10:2], great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass [the masses calmed from their agitation] mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast [Babylon], and over his image [his lies], and over his mark [the confusion in head and hand {works}], and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, LORD God Almighty; just and true are your ways, you King of saints.
4 Who shall not fear you, O LORD [see Jeremiah 10:7], and glorify your name? for you only are holy: for all nations shall come and worship before you; for your judgments are made manifest.
5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
8 And the temple was filled with smoke [to chase out the vermin infesting it] from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Exodus15
1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host has he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: your right hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy.
7 And in the greatness of your excellency you have overthrown them that rose up against you: you sent forth your wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
8 And with the blast [ruwach] of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
10 You did blow with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed [bala’] them.
13 You in your mercy have led forth the people which you have redeemed: you have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation.
14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.
15 Then the dukes of Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab [whose mouths are the gates that hold the world in hell], trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still [damam] as a stone; till your people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which you have purchased.
17 You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which you have made for you to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands have established.
18 The LORD shall reign forever and ever.
19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

Ezekiel 38
4 And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with you.
7 Be you prepared [kuwn – perfected in destruction], and prepare [kuwn – the perfect day when their self-destruction has come] for yourself, you, and all your company that are assembled unto you, and be you a guard unto them.
8 After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 You shall ascend and come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your bands, and many people with you.
10 Thus says the LORD God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into your mind, and you shall think an evil thought:
11 And you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto you, Are you come to take a spoil? have you gathered your company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus says the LORD God; In that day when my people of Israel dwells safely, shall you not know it?
15 And you shall come from your place out of the north parts, you, and many people with you, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And you shall come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring you against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in you, O Gog [Agag – representing all those throughout history who have warred against God’s plan], before their eyes.
17 Thus says the LORD God; Are you he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring you against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the LORD God, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking [ra’ash – earthquake] in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, says the LORD God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Proverbs 4
4 Hear, you children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake you not my law.
3 For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let your heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.
5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve you: love her, and she shall keep you.
7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she shall promote you: she shall bring you to honor, when you do embrace her.
9 She shall give to your head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to you.
10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of your life shall be many.
11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.
12 When you go, your steps shall not be straitened; and when you run, you shall not stumble.
13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is your life.
14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day [kuwn – this day the LORD has prepared].
19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
20 My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a froward mouth [that twists truth], and perverse lips put far from you.
25 Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established [kuwn – be perfected in understanding].
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove your foot from evil.

Psalms 21
1 The king shall joy in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you prevent [go before, prepare for] him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, and you gave it him, even length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation: honor and majesty have you laid upon him.
6 For you have made him most blessed forever: you have made him exceeding glad with your countenance.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand shall find out all your enemies: your right hand shall find out those that hate you.
9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger: the LORD shall swallow [bala’] them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
10 Their fruit shall you destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows upon your strings against the face of them.
13 Be you exalted, LORD, in your own strength: so will we sing and praise your power.

And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

The LORD begins today in the above, Jeremiah 1:19, a chapter telling us, we who are alive, awakened from death by His truth, of when His people who are sleeping in ignorance awaken. It’s when they join us and the LORD send us on the mission he herein describes. It’s when He appears as He has, the first raised to life from the dead, calls his first fruits, His elect remnant to rise with Him, and together we call all His people to the same resurrection. As we know, this is the meaning of the name Jeremiah: Jehovah rising and raising His people with Him in the resurrection.

Jeremiah 1
5 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations.
6 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.
8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree [the earliest blooming tree].
12 Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break [has broken] forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them.
18 For, behold, I have made you this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

The word “deliver” in verse 19 is the Hebrew word natsal, meaning “to snatch away, whether in a good or a bad sense.” It is the equivalent of the Greek word harpazo, “from a derivative of 138 [haireomai: to take for oneself, i.e. to prefer]; to seize (in various applications).” Harpazo, as we know, is the word rendered “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and is the word twisted into the false doctrine of an off the planet rapture. We also know, it’s the word rendered “pulling” in Jude 1:23, where it tells of pulling people from the fires by making them aware they are in danger of burning with all who stay there “in garments spotted by the flesh.” This last quote refers back to Jude 1:12 where the men speaking against LORD are described as “spots” in our feast (this feast of charity) who are those actually “plucked up by the roots.”

Jude 1
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity [agape], when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage [because of their positions of power].
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

As we see, it’s the wicked, who are speaking against His truth, that are plucked up by their roots when the LORD comes with His multitudes. As we’ve seen, Peter (in 2 Peter 2 & 3) describes the perdition (apoleia) of those refusing to come out of the fire, whose damnation (apoleia) slumbers not, as those who wrestle with this word of God, to the own destruction (apoleia).

The word haireomai only appears three times, all in telling of a choice, which is the underlying meaning of harpazo (the true rapture when the LORD pulls us from the fires of ignorance). It’s who we are going to listen to, and this act of choice (krisis) is what will determine our eternal destination. As we’ve seen, the wrong choice was the original sin, listening to the original misleader who twisted the truth into a lie. Haireomai is used in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 as we are told God has “chosen” us to be purified (sanctified) from the lies and mass delusion, for His use, separated from those who perish because they receive not the love of the His truth.

John 3
19 And this is the condemnation [krisis – decision, judgment – the choice in which men perish], that light [understanding] is come into the world, and men loved darkness [chose to remain in ignorance, in confusion and ruled by mass delusion] rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

2 Thessalonians 2
8 And then shall that Wicked [the same wicked men spoken of 2 Thessalonians 3:2, who can’t be reasoned with] be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen [haireomai] you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.

2 Thessalonians 3
1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the LORD may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you [as the true word of God – see 1 Thessalonians 2:13]:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
3 But the LORD is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the LORD touching you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you.

Jude uses the word krisis three times, all three in telling of the response to those speaking against the LORD’s truth, an idea which is the essence of Jude’s remarks. In Verse 6 it’s the “judgment,” the decision to choose truth, which is what the angels refused, the messengers who left their first estate (truth given by God) and became chained to darkness (ignorance). It says they are reserved there until this great day (when God’s people rise with Him after receiving His awakening truth) when they (the wicked) become examples of those who “suffer the vengeance of eternal fire [verse 7].” This is the fire (Jude 1:23) all should fear remaining in eternally, and, in this healthy fear, take the hand the LORD and be saved, pulled (harpazo) from them.

Verse 8 then says these men remain there is because they despise dominion (the LORD’s authority) and speak evil of dignities (blasphemeo doxa – vilify His glory). Then, in the following verse, in a pattern we are told “Yet Michael the archangel [those who are like God and deliver His message faithfully as given], when contending with the devil [the misleaders] he disputed about the body of Moses [the law – truth], durst not bring against him a railing accusation [blasphemia krisis – doesn’t choose to join him in vilifying God], but said, The LORD rebuke [epitimao – {the LORD is} prized over – {He is the prize we aim for, by choice}] you.”

The final time Jude uses krisis is in telling of the “judgment” in verse 15, saying it’s now when the LORD has come, with us, “15 To execute judgment [krisis – when we have chosen truth, its effects] upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Here are several instances when the LORD uses the word natsal to describe this moment and the way forward.

Micha 4
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains [a dominion above all dominions], and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it.
5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.
6 In that day, says the LORD, will I assemble her that halted [was lame and went astray], and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
7 And I will make her that halted [went astray] a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.
8 And you, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 Now why dost you cry out aloud? is there no king in you? is your counsellor perished? for pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.
10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shall you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go even to Babylon [in this time ruled by confusion]; there shall you be delivered [natsal]; there the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make your horn iron [position powerful], and I will make your hoofs brass: and you shall beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the LORD of the whole earth.

Isiah 5
5 Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, shall descend into it.
15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it [natsal – non shall snatch it from my hand – John 10:27 thru 30, the voice His sheep hear, know, and the Father’s hand from where no man can pluck {harpazo} them].
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

Zechariah 3
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist [satan] him.
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke you, O Satan [referred us to Jude 1:9]; even the LORD that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked [natsal – harpazo – referred to in Jude 1:23] out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him [the garments spotted by the flesh – of Jude 1:23]. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments [the clothing of the cleansed priest]. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
6 And the angel of the LORD protested [reiterated] unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts; If you will walk in my ways [derek], and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.

Zechariah 4
1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my LORD?
5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Know you not what these be? And I said, No, my LORD.
6 Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me unto you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Know you not what these be? And I said, No, my LORD.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones [the body of Christ in church and state, Joshua, the cleansed priesthood, and Zerubbabel, those who come to life by coming out of confusion, out of the tribulation fires, out of the world’s mass delusion caused by the deceivers], that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.

Isaiah 19
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border [captivity’s end] thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver [natsal – from the fires of this furnace He will pull] them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

Ezekiel 34
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus says the LORD God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool, you kill them that are fed: but you feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them.
5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
8 As I live, says the LORD God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;
9 Therefore, O you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
10 Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver [natsal – pull] my flock from their mouth [from their misleading words], that they may not be meat for them.
11 For thus says the LORD God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver [natsal – pull] them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the LORD God.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
17 And as for you, O my flock, thus says the LORD God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.
18 Seems it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet?
19 And as for my flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.
20 Therefore thus says the LORD God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
21 Because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad;
22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered [natsal – plucked] them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.
28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.
29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
30 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, says the LORD God.
31 And you my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the LORD God.

John 10
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches [harpazo – pulls] them, and scatters the sheep.
13 The hireling flees, because he is an hireling, and cares not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17 Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
20 And many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad; why hear you him?
21 Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.
24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
26 But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck [harpazo] them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck [harpazo] them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God.
34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods?
35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Say you of him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, You blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38 But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
40 And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
41 And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this man were true.
42 And many believed on him there.

Psalms 82
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods.
2 How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

Above, the LORD speaks of His commanding us to love as He loves us, which is His laying down His life to bring us the truth. The truth is what uncovers cloaked sin. The word rendered “sin” above is the Greek word hamartia, from hamartano, meaning to miss the mark. The latter is from a (ha), which negates what follows, here said to be meros, meaning an allotment, as in a division or share. The meaning is from the idea of not sharing in the prize, because of missing the target.

Understanding of meros is found in its use (four times) in 1 Corinthians 13:9, 10, & 12, where it is rendered “part.” There Paul tells of knowing only in “part” until that which is perfect comes (full understanding is the definition of divine perfection), when we put away the childish things we’ve believed. He says this comes by/with “charity” that never fails and will remain when all other voices have. Charity is from the Greek word agape, meaning, “love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast.” It is speaking of this feast, the LORD here laying down His life to bring us this truth. Agape is used (three times) in John 15:10 & 13 as the LORD describes the greatest (perfecting) love: that we, as He did, lay down our lives for our friends.

John, later in 1 John 3:16, uses agape as he tells of this love and our giving, in this way, the good the world needs, which the LORD has given us. This refers us back to the final verse of John 15, where we understand the deeper meaning of the sin the LORD speaks of, when He tells us we will be His witnesses (giving, charity, as He gave). The word there rendered “witnesses” is the Greek word martureo, from martus, meaning in this context martyr. Paul and John, Christ in them witnessing, manifest the greatest act of the LORD’s love, just as He does now again, Christ through us, freely giving His understanding.

Friends, we have seen whirlwinds, earthquakes, and fires, which have shaken the partial understanding (the ignorance) of the world. The false prophecies, false tongues, and disjointed knowledge, are all parts incomplete without the LORD. The compilation hides until we know and turn to Him: recognizing His voice, His Spirit veiled in flesh.

2 Corinthians 3
16 Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the LORD, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light [understanding] of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light [understanding] to shine out of darkness [ignorance], has shined in our hearts, to give the light [understanding] of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels [our flesh bodies], that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

1 Timothy 6
3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our LORD Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmising,
5 Perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw yourself.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 For the love of [philarguria – only used here – meaning love is focused on silver, as was Judas’, the cloak of false love, false friendship, hiding the true love of] money is the root of all evil [deception and misleading advice, that ends in self-destruction, as in Judas’]: which while some coveted after, they have erred [apoplanao – led astray, became seducers and decievers] from the faith, and pierced themselves through [peripeiro – in the judgment they destroy themselves] with many sorrows.
11 But you, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses [martus].
13 I give you charge in the sight of God, who quickens all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed [martureo] a good confession;
14 That you keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our LORD Jesus Christ:
15 Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and LORD of lords;
16 Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy;
18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

Philippians 2
1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love [agape – charity, speaking of the LORD unknown in us, coming as the Paraclete to lead into all truth], if any fellowship [koinonia – our participation with Him in the work] of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 Fulfil you my joy, that you be likeminded, having the same love [agape – same charity, giving as given], being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputing:
15 That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
18 For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me.
19 But I trust in the LORD Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
22 But you know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel.

1 John 1
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness [martureo], and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship [koinonia] with us: and truly our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship [koinonia] with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light [understanding], as he is in the light, we have fellowship [koinonia] one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin [hamartia – HAVE MISSED THE MARK AND HAVE NOT BEEN HIS WITNESSES], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins [hamartia], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [hamartia], and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unjust, incorrect].
10 If we say that we have not sinned [hamartano – if we say we have not strayed from His truth and have been His witnesses], we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [agape], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [agape], I am nothing [if I give them not as they have been given to me].
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [agape], it profits me nothing [if I give not His understanding as it has been given].
4 Charity [agape] suffers long, and is kind; charity [agape] envies not; charity [agape] vaunts not itself, is not puffed up [not swelled with pride, because what we have is not form us, it was given to be given],
5 Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;
6 Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Charity [agape] never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part [meros], and we prophesy in part [meros].
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part [meros] shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part [meros]; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, charity [agape], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [agape – the greatest love, that overcomes the world].

John 15
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that bears not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved [agapao] me, so have I loved you: continue you in my love [agape].
10 If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love [agape]; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love [agape].
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love [agape] has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his LORD does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
18 If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his LORD. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23 He that hates me hates my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter [Paraclete] is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify [martureo] of me:
27 And you also shall bear witness [martureo], because you have been with me from the beginning.

1 John 2
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father: he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one that does righteousness is born of him.

1 John 3
1 Behold, what manner of love [agape] the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin [hamartia – straying from truth and denying, refusing to witness to, the Father and the son] is the transgression of the law.
5 And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins [hamartia]; and in him is no sin.
6 Whosoever abides in him sins [hamatano] not: whosoever sins [hamartano] has not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that commits sin [hamartia] is of the devil [is a product of the sa’iyr – the misleaders who put themselves in God’s place]; for the devil sins [hamartano] from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love [agapao] the brethren. He that loves [agapao] not his brother abides in death.
15 Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love [agape] of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso has this world’s good [this love, giving this word of God], and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love [agape] of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love [agapao] in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight [when we walk with Him, as partakers in His work, in which He delights].
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love [agapao] one another, as he gave us commandment.
24 And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.

Isaiah 42
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
5 Thus says God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
6 I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar [darkness – ignorance] does inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.
18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant?
20 Seeing many things, but you observe not; opening the ears, but he hears not.
21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.
22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
25 Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Isaiah 43
1 But now thus says the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and he that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you.
3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior: I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you.
4 Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you: therefore will I give men for you, and people for your life.
5 Fear not: for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west;
6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
14 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the LORD, which makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
17 Which brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18 Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.
22 But you have not called upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense.
24 You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices: but you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.
25 I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember your sins.
26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare you, that you may be justified.
27 Your first father has sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Psalms 107
1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness [ignorance] and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18 Their soul abhors all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof.
26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he brings them unto their desired haven.
31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
35 He turns the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs.
36 And there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation;
37 And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
38 He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffers not their cattle to decrease.
39 Again, they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
40 He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
41 Yet sets he the poor on high from affliction, and makes him families like a flock.
42 The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.

Therefore, shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from whence it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.

Therefore, shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from whence it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.

Continuing: In the previous post, we discussed the evil ways (derek) of the enemies mixed among us, using lies and deception as weapons to destroy God’s people. The word in today’s title, Isaiah 47:11, rendered “desolation,” is the Hebrew word show’. As seen in the previous post, it’s origin is the word shav’, meaning vanity and describing the destruction that consumes its perpetrators, of which they remain ignorant until they perish (apoleia).

As we saw, this destruction is exemplified in Job’s accuser as they, in attempting to accuse Job (the hated), ignorantly, and very obvious to all others, indict themselves. This pattern manifests itself in the Democrat (Communist) Party Convention as they falsely accuse those they hate: President Trump and all who revere traditionally sane (rational) America. Theirs is the typical distortion and redefinition of what we all know is reality. They accuse everyone else of causing what their policies produce, the desolation of cities and lives, through the abominations they’ve normalized. They stand before us proposing more of the same, asking us to AGAIN suspend disbelief, as these known liars tell the known lie that says – this time they will produce something different. We have seen (still see) the fruit, and we know the tree. Their hubris is their downfall.

We will further examine this end as the LORD God leads us deeper into the treasures He’s Providentially hidden in His word, so we would know it’s Him speaking and acting on our behalf. Amen!

Hosea 4
5 Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the [lying false] prophet also shall fall with you in the night [by their own ignorance], and I will destroy your mother [I will destroy those who’ve taught you these abominations].
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest [preachers of deception] to me [taking my name in vain]: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God [and teach your own ways], I will also forget your children [those you’ve taught your ways].
7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame [the lies they glory in shall not produce the end they expect].
8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity [their deceptions and injustice, which have destroyed the lives and livelihoods of My people].
9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways [derek], and reward them their doings.
10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

Isaiah 47
1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon [confusion], sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans [who use your word to manipulate and control people]: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
4 As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; upon the ancient have you very heavily laid your yoke.
7 And you said, I shall be a lady forever: so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it.
8 Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwells carelessly, that says in your heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
9 But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon you in their perfection for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and none else beside me.
11 Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from where or when it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation [show’] shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.
12 Stand now with your enchantments [your spells, the mass-delusion you’ve caused], and with the multitude of your sorceries [your words you’ve used to manipulate and control the masses], wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, [let all the so-called experts, the false prophet of this world] stand up, and save you from these things that shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
15 Thus shall they be unto you with whom you have labored, even your merchants, from your youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save you.

In Isaiah 10:3 the LORD uses the word show’ to foretell the visitation, which He further describes in Ezekiel 38, where the word appears in verse 9.

Isaiah 10
1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation [show’] which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian [communists], the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he means not so [he is ignorant of it], neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the LORD has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore shall the LORD, the LORD of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
23 For the LORD God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, O my people that dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his carriages:
29 They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the LORD, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.
34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

Ezekiel 38
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with you.
7 Be you prepared, and prepare for yourself, you, and all your company that are assembled unto you, and be you a guard unto them.
8 After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 You shall ascend and come like a storm [show’ – of desolation], you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your bands, and many people with you.
10 Thus says the LORD God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into your mind, and you shall think an evil thought:
11 And you shall say, I will go up to the land of un-walled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto you, Are you come to take a spoil? have you gathered your company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus says the LORD God; In that day when my people of Israel dwells safely, shall you not know it?
15 And you shall come from your place out of the north parts, you, and many people with you, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And you shall come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring you against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus says the LORD God; Are you he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring you against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the LORD God, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, says the LORD God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

The only other time the word show’ is used after proverbs is in Zephaniah 1:15.

Zephaniah 1
2 I will utterly [by the fire of My word] consume all things from off the land, says the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, says the LORD.
4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims [the ignorance that has caused God’s people to shrivel away] with the priests;
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD [who take His name in vain], and that swear by Malcham [their king whose ideas and ways, intentionally deceptive advice, caused the fire storms burning the earth];
6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
7 Hold your peace at the presence of the LORD God: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, he has bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh [these worthless, hollow, houses], for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hastes greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD [do you hear the voice here now]: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness [show’ – when these men’s destructive ways and ideas come upon their own heads] and desolation, a day of darkness [ignorance] and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

The word rendered “speedy” is the Hebrew word bahal, meaning, “to tremble inwardly (or palpitate), i.e. (figuratively) be (causative, make) (suddenly) alarmed or agitated; by implication to hasten anxiously.”

Isaiah 13
6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid [bahal]: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Isaiah 21
1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds (plural – only here an in Zechariah 9:14) in the south pass through; so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils. Go up, O Elam [eternity]: besiege, O Media [the middle land]; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travails: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed [bahal] at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, you princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.

Ezekiel 7
5 Thus says the LORD God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
6 An end is come, the end is come: it watches for you; behold, it is come.
7 The morning [tsphiyrah – the crown {or corona}, the crowning of the LORD’s chosen, the man of God, as was David] is come unto you, O you that dwells in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.
8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish mine anger upon you: and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that smites.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning [tsphiyrah – the crowning] is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.
12 The time is come, the day draw near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes [halak – walks with God] to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak [halak – walk in ways as unstable] as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers [priyts – the violence of tyrants] shall enter into it, and defile it.
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor [shmuw’ah – teaching sound doctrine, and reporting truth] shall be upon rumor [shmuw’ah – teaching and reporting that isn’t believed, and the man of God reporting is still unknown – because of the lies and misleading of those who’ve blinded the world by drunkenness]; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled [bahal]: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Psalms 35
1 Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am your salvation.
4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
6 Let their way [derek] be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
8 Let destruction [show’] come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he has hid catch himself: into that very destruction [show’] let him fall.
9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto you, which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoils him?
11 False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
12 They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourns for his mother.
15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:
16 With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
17 LORD, how long will you look on? rescue my soul from their destructions [show’], my darling from the lions.
18 I will give you thanks in the great congregation: I will praise you among much people.
19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
20 For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.
21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.
22 This you have seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O LORD, be not far from me.
23 Stir up yourself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my LORD.
24 Judge me, O LORD my God, according to your righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.
25 Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me.
27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
28 And my tongue shall speak of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

Psalms 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex [bahal] them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way [derek], when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken you me in your way [derek].

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken you me in your way [derek].

The word “vanity” above, Psalms 119:37, is the Hebrew word shav’, meaning, “evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain).” It’s from the Hebrew word show’ (show’ah, sho’ah), meaning “to rush over; a tempest; by implication devastation.”

As discussed numerous times, the above definitions describe the deceptive ways of evil men: intentionally bringing ignorance and darkness: the agitation underlying the storms of life. In our time, we see it culminating in the mass delusion holding all the world in its grip, when a common virus is intentionally hyped to incite the masses into unwarranted fear and irrational panic. It is, as were all the manufactured incitements before it, used to manipulate and control people into doing whatever the deceivers desire. In this last instance, when information is twisted, weaponized, and spread like a virus, we see the deliberate mass destruction of the economy and many millions of lives and livelihoods. This evil was/is perpetrated by the Democrat Communist Party, their allies, and their fake news and social media. Motivated by hate for America’s God, its Christian culture, its Constitution, its freedom, and the President and people who love and revere them, they commit these malicious acts. They do so hoping it gives them a political advantage in the coming elections, and gaining them control, the opportunity to finish the destruction they’ve begun.

The problems they (the evil-doers) have are – their pride has swelled into a trap, their presumption they’re all-powerful, and, in their arrogance, thinking they have a right to rule us. The problem is an ignorance of history and the Almighty who controls it.

“In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince [the powerful], whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” This is a quote from the Declaration of independence. The Declaration was/is a covenant with God, which the signers acknowledged in the final sentence, saying, “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” These men kept their part of the covenant, and God, who is honorable, cannot forget His.

Divine Providence describes God’s Almighty forethought and provision for the salvation of believers who trust Him.

The first time the word shav’ appears (Exodus 20:7) it’s warning against taking the LORD’s name in “vain,” meaning claiming you follow God’s ways and then trusting and following the worthless ways of men. The second place is in Exodus 23:1, very descriptively for the moment, warning in verses 1 & 2, “You shall not raise a false [shav’] report: put not your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shall you speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:”

This last portion is God’s GOOD advice saying don’t decline into following deception just because many others do. If you do, you are joining them in twisting judgment into injustice.

The next time it (shav’) appears, it’s used three times, twice in Deuteronomy 5:11 and once in verse 20, as Moses tells of the LORD’s voice (His presence as now) is heard from the fire.

Deuteronomy 5
1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and keep, and do them.
2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
3 The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the word of the LORD: for you were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,
6 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
7 You shall have none other gods before me.
8 You shall not make you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
9 You shall not bow down yourself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain [shav’]: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain [shav’].
12 Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God have commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work:
14 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.
15 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
17 You shall not kill.
18 Neither shall you commit adultery.
19 Neither shall you steal.
20 Neither shall you bear false [shav’] witness against your neighbor.
21 Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s wife, neither shall you covet your neighbor’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is your neighbor’s.
22 These words the LORD spoke unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
23 And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that you came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;
24 And you said, Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does talk with man, and he lives.
25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.
26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?
27 Go you near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak you unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto you; and we will hear it, and do it.
28 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when you spoke unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto you: they have well said all that they have spoken.
29 O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever [‘owlam – through all time]!
30 Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.
31 But as for you, stand you here by me, and I will speak unto you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land [America] which I give them to possess it.
32 You shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God has commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
33 You shall walk in all the ways [derek] which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The word (shav’) next appears in Job, his name meaning he is hated upon the earth, which we know is manifested in his suffering constant false accusations. As we’ve also seen, Job’s suffering is all part of God’s plan to draw out into open sight his accusers, who become ensnared in their own false allegations, condemned by their own words.

1 Corinthians 11
19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved [by God] may be made manifest among you.

Jeremiah 49
Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom [the enemies mixed among us]; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [who say they are the wise of the world]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.

Jeremiah 50
Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon [the confusion that rules over the world]; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans [those who use their lies to control and manipulate the masses]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.

In Job 6 & 7, Job says:
14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he [the false accusers] forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brethren [as Esau, as enemies mixed among us] have dealt deceitfully as a brook [flowing word of false accusation], and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
16 Which are blackish [without understanding] by reason of the ice [because the word of God is yet frozen in heaven, and there is no understanding], and wherein the snow is hid:
17 What time they wax warm, they vanish [when His word is melted and flows understanding]: when it is hot [and the waters boils, from the fire of His words from His mouth], they are consumed out of their place.
18 The paths of their way [derek] are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish [the apoleia – the perdition that comes upon those who wrestle with this word of God, to their own destruction, which Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 3:16, after telling of the stoicheion, the element, the corrupt ideas and ways of men, that melt away in the fire their same ideas and ways have caused].
19 The troops of Tema [the place where the wise men of the world dwell, also the place of the theophany, the LORD manifested in His word and the fire] looked, the companies of Sheba [seven – this completion, which the LORD God Almighty promised] waited for them.
20 They were confounded [the accusers are found in confusion – in Babylon] because they had hoped [because they put their trust in the ways and ideas of men]; they came thither, and were ashamed [disappointed, because they haven’t reached the end they hoped for and expected].
21 For now you are nothing; you see my casting down, and are afraid.
22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
25 How forcible are right words! but what does your arguing reprove?
26 Do you imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
27 Yea, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you dig a pit for your friend.
28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.
29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.
30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

Job 7
1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of a hireling?
2 As a servant earnestly desire the shadow, and as a hireling looks for the reward of his work:
3 So am I made to possess months of vanity [shav’], and wearisome nights [times of ignorance of these accusers] are appointed to me.
4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night [their ignorance] be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro [sleeplessly searching for the words to give understanding into darkness] unto the dawning of the day [waiting for light to come, for them to understand].

The next two place shav’ is used, Job11:11 & 15:31, it is as Jobs accusers condemn themselves as they ignorantly accuse him of what they’re doing. In Job 11, the one speaking is Zophar the Naamathite, meaning what is pleasing to God (mercy and the knowledge of God – Hosea 6:6) has departed from him. In Job 15, it’s Eliphaz the Temanite, meaning his god is gold, which has corrupted all the so-called wise of this world.

Job 11
3 Should your lies make men hold their peace? and when you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
4 For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.
5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you;
6 And that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
7 Can you by searching find out God? can you find out the Almighty unto perfection?
8 It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
11 For he knows vain [shav’] men: he sees wickedness also; will he not then consider it?

Job 15
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I: yea, your own lips testify against you.
7 Are you the first man that was born? or were you made before the hills?
8 Have you heard the secret of God? and do you restrain wisdom to yourself?
9 What know you, that we know not? what understands you, which is not in us?
10 With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God small with you? is there any secret thing with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away? and what do your eyes wink at,
13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold, he puts no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinks iniquity like water?
17 I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked man travails with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21 A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 He believes not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 For he stretches out his hand against God, and strengthens himself against the Almighty.
26 He runs upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
27 Because he covers his face with his fatness, and makes collops of fat on his flanks.
28 And he dwells in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps.
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30 He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity [shav’]: for vanity [shav’] shall be his recompense [his own ways will return upon him].
32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepares deceit.

Job, in Job 31:5, uses shav’ in his complaint to God, as he finds himself in the same trap as the wicked.

Job 30
19 He has cast me into the mire [the corruption these men have stirred], and I am become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry unto you, and you do not hear me: I stand up, and you regards me not.
21 You are become cruel to me: with your strong hand you oppose yourself against me.
22 You lift me up to the wind [of their false doctrines]; you cause me to ride upon it, and dissolve my substance.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light [understanding to take hold], there came darkness [deeper ignorance – see Isaiah 8:22].
27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.
28 I went mourning without the sun [without the light of your understanding in your church]: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am a brother to dragons [those whose words are venom and whose mouth devours], and a companion to owls [who hunt their prey, the ignorant, in the darkness].
30 My skin is black [I am covered, hidden, by their ignorance] upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

Job 31
1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange [unknown] punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Does not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with vanity [shav’], or if my foot has hasted to deceit;
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.
7 If my step has turned out of the way [derek], and mine heart walked after mine eyes [ways of my own creation], and if any blot has cleaved to mine hands;
8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring [creations] be rooted out.

The next and final use of shav’ in Job comes, in Job 35:13, as the LORD manifests His presence in Elihu, Jehovah God (unknown) in him speaking.

Job 35
2 Think you this to be right, that you said, My righteousness is more than God’s?
3 For you said, What advantage will it be unto you? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
4 I will answer you, and your companions with you.
5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than you.
6 If you sin, what do you against him? or if your transgressions be multiplied, what do you unto him?
7 If you be righteous, what give you him? or what receives he of your hand?
8 Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are; and your righteousness may profit the son of man.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10 But none says, Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night;
11 Who teaches us more than the beasts [those without His Spirit] of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12 There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear vanity [shav’], neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 Although you say you shall not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust you in him.
15 But now, because it is not so [because you take the LORD’s name in vain, and your trust in the ways and ideas of men], he has visited in his anger; yet he knows it not in great extremity:

The LORD uses the Hebrew word derek three times in Job 38, all in telling of His way as light, understanding that only comes from Him, with no underlying detrimental motive. It’s what He is saying, above in verses 6 thru 8, when He says there is nothing we can do to profit him, which, in verse 9, He contrasts against the oppressions of the oppressors: the tyrants of the world.

Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind [ca’ar], and said,
2 Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band [a protective wrapping] for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light [understanding] is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.
19 Where is the way [derek] where light [understanding] dwells? and as for darkness [the ignorance of men], where is the place thereof,
20 That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?
22 Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way [derek] is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way [derek] for the lightning of thunder;
26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28 Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send lightnings, that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust grow into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 Who provides for the raven [those covered in darkness] his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat [they wander aimlessly without the deep understanding only He gives].

Psalms 104
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with honor and majesty.
2 Who covers yourself with light [understanding] as with a garment: who stretches out the heavens like a curtain:
3 Who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters: who makes the clouds his chariot: who walks upon the wings of the wind:
4 Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever [‘owlam].
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of your thunder they hasted away.
8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which you have founded for them.
9 You have set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
10 He sends the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
13 He waters the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works.
14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.
16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;
17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down.
20 You make darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
22 The sun arises, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
23 Man goes forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.
24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you made them all: the earth is full of your riches.
25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom you have made to play therein.
27 These wait all upon you; that you may give them their meat in due season.
28 That you give them they gather: you open your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide your face, they are troubled: you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
30 You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.
31 The glory of the LORD shall endure forever [‘owlam]: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles: he touches the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless you the LORD, O my soul. Praise you the LORD.

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

As we know, the word “hell” is from the Hebrew name Sheol, meaning, “Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates,” and rendered “grave, hell, pit.” The origin of the word, and its most profound meaning, is in the word sha’el, meaning, “to inquire; by implication, to request; by extension, to demand.”

In these meanings, we understand hell as where the dead reside, meaning a time, as now, when the world has descended into insoluble confusion and chaos. As we understand, the dead are those whose minds show no sign of higher function: incapable or unwilling to assess cause or effect accurately, and, therefore, unable to choose the proper course (way) to the solution. In this state, the masses begin to awaken, first realizing they’ve come to a place under constant threat and without peace and security. The next step is to question: inquire about the cause of the course and condition that’s resulted.

Friends, I tell you this is the hell we are in, and who we follow forward will take us either into deeper darkness or, if following those who understand the cause and the course out, into restored peace and security.

A truthful assessment of this moment when and where the threat is so prominently on display: hearing those whose counsel is to continue on the path they’ve taken us, leads to only one choice forward. In the inquiry, it’s obvious the Democrat Communists, the (so-called) conservatives (collectivist globalists), tyrants both, and their like-minded allies in the mainstream (fake news and social) media have advised and led us into this destination. It’s indisputable their policies put into practice, everywhere they control, have devastated and destroyed the peace and security, the lives and livelihoods, of the majorities who’ve elected them.

As the title says, this is the hell (Sheol) they’ve digged us into, the depths of darkness that resulted from following the advice of these tyrannical masters. These are the same know liars who continue the lie, claiming their advice will result in heaven, which is just over the horizon that comes with their election and control of the places that have as yet escaped their destructive reign. This lie, the promised dystopian heaven to which they attempt to climb, is from where they are pulled down by the understanding that overcomes their confusion, the light that overcomes their darkness.

The way forward is to follow God’s good (without underlying self-serving manipulation) that produce and reinforce sound government, which only comes in one form: securing the rights given to us by God. The only powers the enemies of peace and security are the lies and false accusations against those who oppose their proven destructive ways. The platform and policies they propose are proven to be lies by their record of this moment’s reality. Instead of governing to secure and keep the peace, they offer plans (defunding police) with the primary intention of destroying them. They (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris), without equivocation, say they will (after removing the keepers of the peace) trample the rights of individuals to protect themselves (gun confiscation or mandatory buybacks).

We see some so-called conservatives, the globalists whose agenda also places the American people under threat, joining the communist Democrats against the President and his supporters. The common reason that unites and motivates them is he (and us) opposes their anti-American policies. They’ve become united against their common enemy, the American people who understand they’re known liars using their power to deceive, for self-interest and in conceit (thinking they have the right to rule us any WAY they see fit).

The title is Amos 9:2, a chapter which begins with the LORD saying, “I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that flees of them shall not flee away, and he that escapes of them shall not be delivered.”

The “cut” in the head of these men, is from the Hebrew word batsa’, meaning, “to break off, i.e. (usually) plunder; figuratively, to finish, or (intransitively) stop.” The cut tells of an identifying mark that shows if someone’s intentions are pure or not, relating to the word sha’el: advice and leading. If it is asked for and given with pure intention, in truth, it is the mark of good, and if the underlying motive is self-centered, willing deception that only benefits the deceiver, it is the mark of evil.

Today, in this light, the President is on the side of good, and the other side, evil.

Fear you not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

Fear you not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

The above, Matthew 10:31, comes amid the LORD telling us what His disciples must do, but, in fear of persecution, don’t. It’s the same this day when the church fears the fires of hell, the same fearful silence that allows the wicked to destroy men and nations. In the following verses, He speaks of those who confess and deny Him, which refers back to the salvation spoken of in verse 22 and the cause of the persecution that precedes the coming of the Son of man.

Matthew 10
22 And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for truly I say unto you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his LORD.
25 It is enough for the disciple [pupil] that he be as his master [teacher], and the servant as his LORD [the bound and the one he is bound to]. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered [kalupto], that shall not be revealed [apokalupto – apocalypse]; and hid [kruptos – cryptic, secret meaning], that shall not be known.
27 What I tell you in darkness [of which you were ignorant], that speak you in light [once you understand tell what you have learned]: and what you hear in the ear, that preach you upon the housetops.
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The word “destroy” is from the Greek word apollumi, meaning “to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively.” We fully understand its meaning (in context) when we see the four other times it’s used in this chapter. In verse 6, it’s first rendered “lost,” in describing the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It’s then used twice, in verse 39, saying those who try to save their own life (by their silence avoiding persecution) shall “lose” it (destroyed in the fires of hell), and he that takes up his cross, suffering to reveal understanding, “loses” his life and finds it. The final appearance (of apollumi) is in verse 42, in speaking of understanding as a cup of cold water, and saying whosever gives it to one of the little ones (who have become like children: willing and eager to learn) shall in no wise “lose” their reward (life).

Mathew 10
26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear, that preach you upon the housetops.
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy [apollumi] both soul and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear you not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves Son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me.
39 He that finds his life shall lose [apollumi] it: and he that loses [apollumi] his life for my sake shall find it.
40 He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
41 He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, truly I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose [apollumi] his reward.

The eight-times used Greek word kalupto, in verse 26 rendered “covered,” only appears one other time in Matthew. In Matthew 8:24, it’s used to tell of the waves of the great tempest that cover the ship in which were the LORD and His disciples. This portion of the chapter begins with telling of the great multitude that gathered to Him. This multitude, the masses into which word flow as rivers, are the sea in which the storm is raging, who He commands to take to the other side (from one bank to the other – see the previous post and the discussion of Daniel 12).

As we’ve seen in previous posts, the word “tempest” here is the seismos, meaning earthquake and rendered as such the thirteen other times it’s used. It’s telling of the underlying cause of the agitation that produces the wave that keeps what is in the ship covered. As we know, the waves are the pride of men, who swelled with conceit, have risen among the masses to prominence.

In verse 26, we see the disciples are fearful, fearing the waves and the sea, and awaken the LORD, asking Him to save them because they perish (apollumi). He is telling how we’re saved, now when He is risen and rebukes the wind and the sea. The word in verse 25 rendered “awoke” is the same word, egeiro, rendered “arose” in verse 26, and the same word used to tell the LORD’s rising in the resurrection from the dead.

Who has believed our report? To them the arm of the LORD is revealed.

Matthew 8
16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.
19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master [Teacher], I will follow you whithersoever you go.
20 And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head [none of the corrupt houses are mine].
21 And another of his disciples said unto him, LORD, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest [seismos] in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered [kalupto] with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke [egeiro] him, saying, LORD, save us: we perish [apollumi].
26 And he said unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose [egeiro], and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27 But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God? are you come hither to torment us before the time?
30 And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the devils besought him, saying, If you cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

Romans 8
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised [egeiro] up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised [egeiro] up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
27 And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
34 Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen [egeiro] again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD.

Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel [all God’s people] is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness [ignorant that the LORD is correct and correcting], and going about to establish their own righteousness [they are going about trying to prove their corrupt ways are right], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness [the correction] of God. [see Isaiah 64:5 & 6 below – when they realize all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags]
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture say, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Romans 13
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake [egeiro – rise] out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light [of understanding].
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put you on the LORD Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid [kalupto – covered], it is hid [kalupto] to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds [with waves of untruth and deception] of them which believe not, lest the light [understanding] of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine [give understanding] unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
2 As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him.
5 You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways [derek]: behold, you are wroth; for we have sinned: in those [your ways] is continuance, and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind [of false doctrine – see Hebrews 13 below], have taken us away.
7 And there is none that call upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: behold, see, we beseech you, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, O LORD? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?

Isaiah 65
1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walk in a way [derek] that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick [the creations of men];
4 Which remain among the graves [among the dead], and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
8 Thus says the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10 And Sharon [when all plainly see] shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor [the places where before there was continual strife] a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11 But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed:
14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
15 And you shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the LORD God shall slay you, and call his servants by another name:
16 That he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Hebrews 12
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 13
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
4 Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
6 So that we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

Ephesians 4
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying [educating – building up] of itself in love.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the LORD, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
26 Be you angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Psalms 29
1 Give unto the LORD, O you mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thunders: the LORD is upon many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars [the self-righteous]; yea, the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon [the self-righteous in the high places of purity].
6 He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn [the high places of purity are renewed as the only power].
7 The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh [holiness].
9 The voice of the LORD makes the hinds to calve [to bring forth new life], and discovers the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.
10 The LORD sits upon the flood; yea, the LORD sits King forever.
11 The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

The above, Isaiah 8:22, speak of now, when the battle for the heart and mind of humanity has been lost and evil reigns in what is taught, broadcast, and become the standard. As seen in recent discussions, this is the “way,” from the Hebrew word derek, the LORD speaks against earlier in verse 11. There He says it’s a “confederacy” wherein all are walking, listening to spells cast by the modern (so-called experts) wizards of our time: familiar spirit whose words we know from history are ways that lead nations into suicide. The LORD asks why people aren’t following His sound advice and the understanding He gives. He answers the question in the verses before the title, saying they instead are cursing Him and their king and, therefore, go into deeper darkness (ignorance).

Isaiah 8
5 The LORD spoke also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuses the waters of Shiloah that go softly [the word of God, that flow as the rivers from Him and are the foundation of peace through understanding], and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son [names meaning they are firm in the ideas, advice, they exalt {ramam} above the LORD’s];
7 Now therefore, behold, the LORD brings up upon them the waters of the river [the anti-good advice], strong and many, even the king of Assyria [the communists, anti-gods among us], and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck [covering, overcoming, all but the head, the very elect]; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel [into this God has manifested His presence, through this {His} word, His sound advice, which His people refuse to hear].
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 [O Immanuel].
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way [derek] 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 [as it is obvious is their objective, which they have now almost in totally accomplished].
13 Sanctify [separate yourselves to] 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 [the safety of those who do come to Him]; 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 [because they stumble and are offended at this word].
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the [this] testimony, seal the law among my disciples [as in Revelation 7 where we are told of the elect remnant who have now been sealed].
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob [the houses of those who still unknowingly wrestle with God and His word – as many will continue, to their own destruction – 2 Peter 3:16 saying this is their perdition {apoleia}], 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 [whose advice is the way to death], and unto wizards [this world’s so-called experts broad-casting spells] that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they be looking] for the living to the dead?
20 [Or] 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: 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.

The word “confederacy” is the Hebrew word qesher, meaning, “an (unlawful) alliance,” as in conspiracy or treason.

As we know, these later meanings describe what we are experiencing. There is a treasonous conspiracy among the Democrat Communists, the never-Trump so-called conservatives, most news media, education, entertainment, etc.; to overthrow the President, and more to destroy us and our unique CHRISTIAN culture of better ideas. These men are empowered by God’s people now fallen into a powerless state by following false prophets and false teachers who’ve led them into separation from God and into darkness (ignorance).

The word quesher appears these two times in Isaiah, and after only twice: Jeremiah 11:9 and Ezekiel 22:25.

Jeremiah 11
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,
2 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
3 And say you unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant,
4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God:
5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
6 Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.
7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.
9 And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy [qesher] is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
11 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.
14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
15 What has my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.
16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted you, has pronounced evil against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.
18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showed me their doings.
19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judges righteously, that tries the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I revealed my cause.
21 Therefore thus says the LORD of the men of Anathoth [the men who’ve prayed from this day and now blaspheme it], that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand:
22 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine [by refusing to hear this word of God]:
23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

Ezekiel 22
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yea, you shall show her all her abominations.
3 Then say you, Thus says the LORD God, The city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and make idols against herself to defile herself.
4 You are become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even unto your years: therefore have I made you a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
5 Those that be near, and those that be far from you, shall mock you, which are infamous and much vexed.
6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in you to their power to shed blood.
7 In you have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
8 You have despised mine holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
9 In you are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.
10 In you have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness: in you have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
11 And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
12 In you have they taken gifts to shed blood; you have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the LORD God.
13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you.
14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
15 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you.
16 And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
19 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, say unto her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy [qesher] of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the LORD God, when the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the LORD God.

As we have seen, now is the end of Abraham’s deep sleep when we awaken. This specific form of darkness is mentioned, in Isaiah 8:22, using the five times appearing Hebrew word chashekah, meaning “darkness; figuratively, misery.” It’s referring to the effect of this sleep, the horror of death, where man has lost his collective mind and the world is ruled by induced confusion and ignorance.

As we’ve often discussed, the beginning of this sleep is recorded in Genesis 15, where the covenant with Abraham is described. There in verse 12 is the first of the five times chashekah is used. The chapter begins with the LORD telling Abram (the risen father, now Abraham, adding ah {meaning Jehovah – risen in him}) to FEAR NOT, because He is his shield and his exceedingly great reward. This is part of what Abraham believed, “and He [the LORD] counted it to him for righteousness.”

Genesis 15
1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.
2 And Abram said, LORD God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
3 And Abram said, Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir.
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall your seed be.
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.
8 And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness [chashekah] fell upon him.
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

As we know, the sleep began at Isaac’s birth in 1896 BC. As we also know, it’s the beginning of the sleep from which Daniel, in Daniel 12, tells of the awakening (both sides, banks, of the river). We know, there he gives the formula for knowing the time is now, saying it’s a time and (added to) times, that is rightly divided (halved) telling us of this moment when we awaken in the resurrection. The time is 1,290, and the times ar0 plus 1,335, these three numbers equal the sum of 3,915, which equals 1896 BC added to 2019 AD (when the old world and the sleep ended, and we awakened in the new 2020). (See the post of 23 December 2019 that discusses this.)

Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael [he who is the image and likeness of God] stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my LORD, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days.

The other three times chashekah appears are Psalms 82:5 & 139:12, and Isaiah 50:10, all describing the moment of awakening from the darkness [ignorance] to life.

Psalms 82
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods.
2 How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness [chashekah]: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

Isaiah 50
1 Thus says the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinks, because there is no water, and dies for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The LORD God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The LORD God has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the LORD God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the LORD God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walk in darkness [chashekah], and has no light [understanding]? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
11 Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire [the fires your own understanding kindle], and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have of mine hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

Isaiah 51
1 Hearken to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their reviling.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forgets the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD your God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, You are my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your LORD the LORD, and your God that pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonish at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Psalms 139
1 O LORD, you have searched me, and known me.
2 You know my down-sitting and mine uprising, you understand my thought afar off.
3 You compass my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12 Yea, the darkness hides not from you; but the night shines as the day: the darkness [chashekah] and the light are both alike to you.
13 For you have possessed my reins: you have covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well.
15 My substance was not hid from you, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes did see my substance, yet being un-perfect; and in your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are your thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with you.
19 Surely you will slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, you bloody men.
20 For they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate you? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookCheck Our Feed