The pride of God’s people testifies to their face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.
There is now much discussion about the many versions of the false prophet’s so-called rapture. The debate is about which version is the truth, while the reality is they all got it wrong. These same fictioneers and their false visions (molten images) are the corrupt foundation that keeps God’s people from hearing and seeing Him present.
They (the false teachers and false prophets) look for some fictitious antichrist when they are those possessed by the spirit of Satan: with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, sitting in God’s place, as if they are Him, resisting and opposing His work and word.
They (the false teachers and false prophets) are those who hold God’s people down (katecho – let) and will hold them down until taken out of the way (mesos – out of our midst).
When the title, a derivative of Hosea 7:10, speaks of these men, swelled with “pride,” the word used is ga’own. It is the same word used by Jeremiah when speaking of this end time, as the “swelling [ga’own] of Jordan.” The Jordan, meaning descent, speaks of the words of men that carry, have carried, all humanity into death and hell.
As we know, the Jordan river flows into the Dead Sea, the lowest land-based elevation and the deepest salt-water lake on earth. It (the Dead Sea – death) is the darkened deep spoken of in Genesis 1:2, without form and void, minus light or life.
It is against the words (of false teachers and false prophets) that have led all into death, the gates of hell by which they are there held, the LORD, as a roaring Lion, has come. The only thing that keeps His presence a secret is the “pride” of these same gates of hell, which are still misleading.
Isaiah 45
15 Truly you are a God that hides yourself [from the ignorant, by their ignorance], O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They shall be ashamed [when they don’t reach the end they said they knew], and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
17 But Israel [God’s people] shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
18 For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place [of the ignorant] of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, [diligently] Seek you me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together [into My ONE BODY], you that are escaped of the nations [those who, by their ignorance, don’t know Me]: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
21 Tell you, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.
22 Look unto me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
The morbid paradox is the LORD is very obviously present, and those who know it best are these same wicked men, rebellious angels, hiding Him by their misleading: their swelled rivers carrying the world in continual descent.
Hosea 7
1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim [God’s people in this evil generation] was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria [who’ve put idols in God’s place and call them by His name]: for they commit falsehood; and the thief comes in, and the troop of robbers spoils without.
2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face [in My Presence].
3 They make the king [Brandon and Francis] glad with their wickedness, and the princes [their minions] with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceases from raising after he has kneaded the dough, until it be leavened [fully corrupted].
5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine [that brought the world into a stuper]; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they have made ready their heart [altered and corrupted all discourse, destroying the foundations of reality] and like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges [and there is no good judgment]; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
8 Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people [who don’t know Me]; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not [because they have become ignorant of My ways]: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him [this is their old age], yet he knows not.
10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.
11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove [who is the sign of the end, and is ignorant of it] without heart: they call to Egypt [their oppressors], they go to Assyria [the communists].
12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise [correct] them, as their congregation has heard.
13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.
15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.
16 They return [to their misleaders whose pride carried them here], but not to the Most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision [confusion and insanity, not knowing reality] in the land of Egypt [the oppressor they call to for help].
Hosea 8
1 Set the trumpet to your mouth [call My people to gather to Me, because we are in a war, and the enemy continues his attack]. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know you.
3 Israel has cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it [them] not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5 Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel was it also: the workman [the false teachers and false prophets mixed among them] made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria [they call by My name] shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up [and is in the belly of hell]: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
9 For they are gone up to Assyria [the communists], a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations [following those who don’t know Me], now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden [of corruption and deception] of the king of princes [they follow].
11 Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
12 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepts them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt [greater oppression of their choosing].
14 For Israel [God’s people at large] has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; and Judah [the current crop of corrupt leaders] has multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
Jeremiah 50
28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon [from the confusion that rules the world], to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.
29 Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her: for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel [who is a man of war].
30 Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD.
31 Behold, I am against you, O you most proud, says the LORD God of hosts [who is a man of war]: for your day is come, the time that I will visit you.
32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
33 Thus says the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast [who will hold them down, until they are taken out of the way]; they refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans [those who use their word to deceive, mislead, manipulate, and control], says the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
36 A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote [be proud of their lies]: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed [confused by their own insanity].
37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.
38 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad [insane] upon their idols.
39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert [those desolate without the Spirit] with the wild beasts [without His Spirit] of the islands [without God’s word] shall dwell there, and the owls [who hunt souls in the darkness] shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited [by the living] forever; neither shall it be dwelt in [by the living] from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom [flaming] and Gomorrah [ruin] and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
41 Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon [confusion].
43 The king of Babylon [Brandon and Francis] has heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
44 Behold, he [the LORD, who is a man of war] shall come up [rise] like a lion from [against] the swelling [ga’own] of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them [the misleaders] suddenly run away from her [My people]: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
45 Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon [the confusion that rules the old and ending world]; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans [the misleaders]: Surely the least of the flock [I Am] shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
46 At the noise [My voice] of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations [who haven’t know Me or My ways].
Zechariah 11
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon [high places where purity should be seen], that the fire may devour your cedars [those whose pride tells them they are pure and innocent].
2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O you oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds [the corrupt leader who are misleaders]; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the [LORD, who is a man of war] roaring of young lions; for the pride [ga’own – swelling] of Jordan is spoiled.
4 Thus says the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them [because they are misleaders], and their soul also abhorred me.
Isaiah 48
12 Hearken unto me [and stop listening to and following these misleaders], O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 Mine hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
14 All you, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come you near unto me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the LORD God, and his Spirit, has sent me.
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD your God which teaches you to profit, which leads you by the way that you shouldest go.
18 O that you had hearkened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20 Go you forth of Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the [old] earth; say you, The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, says the LORD, unto the wicked.
These proud people, the misleaders, are identified by Jeremiah. He says, in Jeremiah 12:2, they are those the LORD has planted, in whose mouth He is near, but He is far from their reins. He says they are the wicked who prosper, who are saying, “He shall not see our last end.”
The LORD then responds to this complaint, saying to Jeremiah:
5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in [the last end, which I do see] the swelling [ga’own – pride] of Jordan?
6 For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yea, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not [because they are false teachers and false prophets], though they speak fair words unto you.
7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.
9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
12 The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end [of the old] of the land [earth] even to the other end [the beginning of the new] of the land [earth]: no flesh shall have peace.
13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns [misleaders]: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
14 Thus says the LORD against all mine evil neighbors [who say they are our countrymen and brethren], that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land [the old corrupt earth into the new], and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal [the idols the put in My place]; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 13
1 Thus says the LORD unto me, Go and get you a linen girdle [the provision of righteousness], and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water [mix it not, the word of God, with the word of men].
2 So I got a girdle [received this providence] according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
3 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
4 Take the girdle that you have got, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock [in the tomb when it dies].
5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded you to hide there.
7 Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it [in death]: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
8 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 Thus says the LORD, After this manner will I mar [shachath – decay into ruin – My people’s knowledge of My righteousness] the pride [ga’own] of Judah, and the great pride [ga’own] of Jerusalem.
10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods [men in My place], to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
11 For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
12 Therefore you shall speak unto them this word; Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
13 Then shall you say unto them, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
15 Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.
16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock is carried away captive.
18 Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.
19 The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.
20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north [out of ignorance]: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?
22 And if you say in your heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts discovered, and your heels made bare.
23 Can the Ethiopian [those covered in darkness] change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, says the LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
26 Therefore will I discover your skirts upon your face, that your shame may appear.
27 I have seen your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your whoredom, and your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem! will you not be made clean? when shall it once be?
The word the LORD uses when He, in verse 27 above, asks when His people will be made “clean,” is the Hebrew word taher, meaning “to be bright [light]; i.e. (by implication) to be pure (physical sound, clear, unadulterated; Levitically, uncontaminated; morally, innocent or holy).”
Jeremiah answers the question the one other time He uses the word, in Jeremiah 33:8. It, in context, is also spoken of by Ezekiel and Malachi: in Ezekiel 37:23 and Malachi 3:3.
Jeremiah 33
4 For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;
5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
8 And I will cleanse [taher] them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.
10 Thus says the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,
11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endures forever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, says the LORD.
12 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that tells them, says the LORD.
14 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
17 For thus says the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually
As we’ve seen, speaking of the provision, the word rendered “tells,” in verse 13 above, is the Hebrew word manah, meaning “to weigh out; by implication, to allot or constitute officially; also to enumerate or enroll:–appoint, count, number, prepare, set, tell.”
It (the word manah) is referring us to the three times it’s used in the Psalms, there telling us it’s His word established (kuwn), raising up David again, which are His judgments that we haven’t known (because only He knows them and reveals them at these ends of the earth: ending the old and beginning the new).
Psalms 61
A Psalms of David.
1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto you, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For you have been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
4 I will abide in your tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of your wings. Selah.
5 For you, O God, have heard my vows: you have given me the heritage of those that fear your name.
6 You will prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.
7 He shall abide before God forever: O prepare [manah] mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
8 So will I sing praise unto your name forever, that I may daily perform my vows.
Psalms 90
1 LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3 You turn man to destruction; and sayest, Return, you children of men.
4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which grows up.
6 In the morning it flourishes, and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance [understanding Your presence].
9 For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of your anger? even according to your fear, so is your wrath.
12 So teach us to number [manah] our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent you concerning your servants.
14 O satisfy us early with your mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let your work [which we know not] appear unto your servants, and your glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish [kuwn] you the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish [kuwn] you it.
Psalms 147
1 Praise you the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
2 The LORD does build up Jerusalem: he gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
4 He tells [manah] the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
5 Great is our LORD, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6 The LORD lifts up the meek: he casts the wicked down to the ground.
7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
8 Who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares [kuwn] rain [His word from heaven] for the earth, who makes grass to grow upon the mountains.
9 He gives to the beast [those without His spirit] his food, and to the young ravens [those covered in darkness: the ignorant] which cry.
10 He delights not in the strength of the horse: he takes not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The LORD takes pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.
13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends forth his commandment upon earth: his word runs very swiftly.
16 He gives snow [His word reserved, frozen, in heaven, for this time of war] like wool: he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold [when His word is hidden, frozen, as in a stone of crystal]?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them: he causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19 He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20 He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise you the LORD.
Ezekiel 37
17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in your hand.
18 And when the children of your people shall speak unto you, saying, Will you not show us what you meanest by these?
19 Say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
20 And the sticks whereon you writest shall be in your hand before their eyes.
21 And say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse [taher] them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children forever: and my servant David shall be their prince forever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
Malachi 3
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier [taher] of silver: and he shall purify [taher] the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightsome land, says the LORD of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?
14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
Job 37
15 Do you know when God disposed them, and caused the light [understanding] of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancing [what is poised there to be sent] of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
17 How your garments are warm, when he quiets the earth by the south wind [which bring the showers of His word from heaven]?
18 Have you with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness [ignorance].
20 Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speaks, surely he shall be swallowed up.
21 And now men see not the bright light [understanding] which is in the clouds [reserved there unto fire and judgment that bring the new earth]: but the wind passes, and cleanses [taher] them.
22 Fair weather comes out of the north [out of darkness by His light]: with God is terrible majesty.
23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
24 Men do therefore fear him: he respects not any that are wise of heart.
Psalms 51
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse [taher] me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge.
5 Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop [should be ‘ezowr – girdle, Your provision], and I shall be clean [taher]: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted unto you.
14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O LORD, open you my lips; and my mouth shall show forth your praise.
16 For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion: build you the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shall you be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon your altar.
