Seek you the LORD, all you meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.

Seek you the LORD, all you meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.

In the above statement, commandment, the core manner and means of our salvation appear through associations. The word meek is from ‘anav, which speaks of subordinating the mind to God’s. It describes, then having the mind of Christ, doing the work (pa’al – “wrought”) that is God’s judgment (establishing equity – His righteousness) in the world.

Here is how Paul describes these aspects: how God effectually works, in and through us, to establish the same “righteousness” and “meekness” in others. This is only possible through the clarity that comes when we understand it is Him, and receiving His word as His, it effectually works in us, and we are in His presence at His coming.

Of Judgment:
1 Corinthians 2
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

Of the work:
Philippians 2
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.

The title verse is Zephaniah 2:3, speaking of our salvation as being “hid,” which is from the Hebrew word cathar. This is the other word twice rendered “hide” in Psalms 27, which speak of the LORD hiding us in His pavilion in the time of trouble (these evil days).

Psalms 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble [ra’ – evil] he shall hide [tsaphan] me in his pavilion: in the secret [cether] of his tabernacle shall he hide [cathar] me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When you said, Seek [baqash] you my face [paniym – presence]; my heart said unto you, Your face [paniym – presence], LORD, will I seek [baqash].
9 Hide [cathar] not your face [paniym – presence] far from me; put not your servant away in anger: you have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

The idea of the LORD hiding us in His presence is contrasted against those spoken of in Zephaniah 1:6, “those that have not sought [baqash] the LORD.” This verse and the title are the only times Zephaniah uses the word baqash.

Zephaniah 1
1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi [Jehovah has secreted us in deep darkness – as a swaddling-band to protect us from our lack of self-control], the son of Gedaliah [until we understand the greatness of Jehovah], the son of Amariah [as Jehovah speaks and fulfills His promises], the son of Hizkiah [and we realize Jehovah is our strength], in the days of Josiah [and we become founded upon the ways and ideas of Jehovah] the son of Amon [His master builder], king of Judah [His elect remnant].
2 I will utterly consume all things from off [paniym – by His presence] 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 [paniym – by His presence] 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 [idolatry] 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, and that swear by Malcham [Molech – the rulers who cause people to sacrifice their children in the fire their ideas and ways cause];
6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought [baqash] the LORD, nor enquired for him.
7 Hold your peace at the presence [paniym] of the LORD God: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD has prepared [kuwn] 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 [the mortar – the lies that hold the wall together, which erode and their deception comes crashing down], 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 hastens greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble [tsarah] and distress, a day of wasting and desolation, a day of darkness 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 [kalah] of all them that dwell in the land.

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 above, Paul tells of this day, when we understand it is Him, by quoting Isaiah 64:4. Isaiah speaks of this as when we “meet” the LORD by remembering His ways, understanding lost through neglect. As we know, the following chapter begins with the LORD saying he is found by those who sought (baqash) him not (because they were looking for the false gods their leaders put in His place). He says these are rebellious people who provoke Him to anger to His face (presence) by worshiping their own creations (altars of brick). He says they are those who remain among the dead (among the graves and tombs). In essence, they are ignorantly telling Him to stay away from them because they are holier than He.

Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence [paniym],
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 [paniym]! [These are words telling of what has occurred and His people have not seen – because they have been misled into darkness and ignorance of Him and His plan.]
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for [because they were looking elsewhere], you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence [paniym].
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: behold, you are wroth; for we have sinned: in those 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, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face [paniym – presence] 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 [baqash] 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 walked in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provoked me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick [the creations of men];
4 Which remain among the graves [refuse to come to the living], and lodge in the monuments [among the dead], 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 [my presence in plain sight] shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor [the places that have been troubled and in tribulation] 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 [the false prophets, the unrepentant, and antichrists], 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 [tsarah] 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 for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create [new] Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in [my people, new] 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 [the ashes of the old earth] shall be the serpent’s [the deceiver’s] meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Psalm 44
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old.
2 How you did drive out the heathen with your hand, and planted them; how you did afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light [understanding] of your countenance [presence], because you had a favor unto them.
4 You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through you will we push down our enemies: through your name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise your name forever. Selah.
9 But you have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and have scattered us among the heathen.
12 You sell your people for naught, and do not increase your wealth by their price.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten you, neither have we dealt falsely in your covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your way;
19 Though you have sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleep you, O LORD? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hide you your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for your mercies’ sake.

Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel 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, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted [hupotasso] themselves unto the righteousness of God [they must submit to God’s correction rather going about to prove they are good and right].
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes [see 1 Corinthians 15:56 & 57].
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 nigh 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 says, 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 says, 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.

The work (pa’al) of the LORD, His way and presence, revealing Himself through His word, in us and through us, is described many times as His saving grace manifested.

Job 33
14 For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumbering upon the bed;
16 Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction [He first awaken a messenger, directly in who He seals His instructions],
17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:
20 So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 Yea, his soul draws near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
23 If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter [who in the volume of the book, finds himself written of], one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness [God’s righteousness]:
24 Then he is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:
26 He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face [paniym – presence] with joy: for he will render unto man his [God’s] righteousness.
27 He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
29 Lo, all these things works [pa’al] God oftentimes with man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light [understanding] of the living.

Job 37
5 God thunders marvelously with his voice [qowl]; great things does he, which we cannot comprehend.
6 For he says to the snow, Be you on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.
7 He seals up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.
8 Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.
9 Out of the south comes the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
11 Also by watering he wearies the thick cloud: he scatters his bright cloud:
12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do [pa’al – His work] whatsoever he commands them upon the face [paniym – in the presence] of the world in the earth.
13 He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
14 Hearken unto this, O Job [My rebellious people who are the hated of the world]: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know when God disposed them, and caused the light [understanding] of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancings of [judgment in, the righteousness of God held in] 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 [the work of His right hand]?
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.
20 Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak [his own ways and ideas against God’s], surely he shall be swallowed up.
21 And now men see not the bright light [understanding] which is in the clouds: but the wind passes, and cleanses them [of what blinds them].
22 Fair weather comes out of the north [tsaphown – when what is hidden in the darkness is revealed]: 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.

Hebrews 10
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 forever, 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 forever 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.

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.

Psalms 91
1 He that dwells in the secret [cether] place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome [havvah – wicked words] pestilence [deber – that plague us].
4 He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you trust: his truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence [deber] that walks in darkness [the way of the plague is the sting of ignorance]; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon [death lurking below the surface in the men’s words] shall you trample under feet.
14 Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble [tsarah]; I will deliver him, and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

And, behold, they [two possessed with devils] 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?

And, behold, they [two possessed with devils] 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?

Matthew 8
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 everything, 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.

Matthew 9
1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.
2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; your sins be forgiven you.
3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes.
4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think you evil in your hearts?
5 For whether is easier, to say, Your sins be forgiven you; or to say, Arise, and walk?
6 But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up your bed, and go unto your house.
7 And he arose, and departed to his house.
8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

The first event above is one of the many claimed contradictions (by the so-called higher critics – who are ignorant without His Spirit) because it is here said to occur in the country of the Gergesenes where two men are possessed. Then in Mark and Luke, it’s in Gadara, where it’s only one man.

As we know (because the same risen LORD has enlightened us), these differences evidence the truth these men are writing of their own experiences, after the LORD has risen in them and their lives patterned His to the cross and resurrection. And “when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.”

Of course, in a deeper examination of the transliterated names, the intended meanings conveyed therein are brought to light from their hiding place (in men’s neglect and resulting ignorance).

According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Gadarenos (Gadara) means “reward at the end,” and is therefore Mark and Luke emphasizing the result. Mark 5:15 describes it as seeing “him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion [of demons], sitting [with Jesus], and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid [feared God {because they saw Him as a threat to their defiling ministries].” The fuller passage describes the reward and the consequence contrasted in those corrected away from ideas and ways possessing and destroying them and those tending (possessing) defiled flocks, who reject Him, and so doing, neglectfully allow them (their herd) to further descend into perdition.

Mark 5
1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, that you torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.
9 And he asked him, What is your name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked [pnigo – as thorns crowding out the good seed: this word of God, as hands around the throat one forced to pay a debt – pnigo appears one other time, in Matthew 18:28 as we are told of the one forgiven then going out and forcing his fellow servant to pay – in the context of Matthew 9 above, all recover and are forgive and the only condemnation is the choice of those who reject Him, to remain in their broad way that leads to destruction] in the sea.
14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
15 And they come to Jesus, and seeing him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.
17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but says unto him, Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the LORD has done for you, and has had compassion on you.
20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

The Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says the name Gergesenes (only used this one time) means “a stranger drawing near,” which is Matthew speaking of the LORD coming unknown, to cast out the devils who possess His people, so that they can know Him. It’s a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Girgashite, which appears to be from the words garash, meaning “to drive out from a possession; especially to expatriate or divorce,” and (the one time used word) geresh, meaning “produce, (as if expelled).”

These two words only appear together once, in Deuteronomy 33 (in the second blessing – Ephraim); geresh in verse 14 telling of the things “put forth” as the LORD blesses the land by blessing Joseph (the father of Ephraim). It tells of Him as the one separated from His brethren, who we know reappears as a stranger to them. This passage, Deuteronomy 33:13 thru 17, is possibly the deepest of all when considered with Genesis 49: 22 thru 26 (the first blessing of Joseph).

Genesis 49
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well [a tree of life by these waters of God]; whose branches run over the wall [the wall of lies men have created and teach]:
23 The archers [ba’al – the gods of this world whose teaching has blinded all form seeing the Father, in the son, the seed of the women who brings forth the man child – see Revelation 12:17] have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies [rabats – couches as a lion] under [the deep meaning that lies below the surface], blessings of the breasts, and of the womb [seed, the son]:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [all those who have come before us, and were only blessed with part of what is perfected in our return to the LORD] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

Deuteronomy 33
13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches [rabats {as a lion}] beneath,
14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth [geresh] by the moon,
15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
16 And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush [cnah – only appears here and five time in Exodus 3, all describing the LORD appearing to Moses as a Bush burning but never consumed by the fire]: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns [are the only power]: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim [those receiving this second blessing], and they are the thousands of Manasseh [those who’ve forgotten God and are now awakened from their sleep].

This gathering together is spoken of when the word garash appears in the final verses of Deuteronomy 33, which describes our rendezvous with the LORD at Har (“the ancient mountain”) Megiddon (Armageddon).

The words above rendered “chief things of the ancient mountains” are meged qedem harar.

As we know, Megiddon is said to mean rendezvous, from the word gadad, meaning “to crowd; also to gash (as if by pressing into):–assemble (selves by troops), gather (selves together, self in troops), cut selves.” It’s from the word guwd (Gad), meaning “to crowd upon, i.e. to attack.”

It (Migeddon) is actually more akin to the word meged, an eight times appearing word, five of which are above in the passage from Deuteronomy 33. It’s meaning is, “from an unused root probably meaning to be eminent; properly, a distinguished thing; hence something valuable, as a product or fruit:–pleasant, precious fruit (thing).” The idea of it as a product and harkens back to the meaning of the word gedesh, “produce, (as if expelled).”

Deuteronomy 33
26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun [the name of God’s people who prosper, are blessed, by following His good advice], who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in his excellency on the sky.
27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out [garash] the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them.
28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! and your enemies shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places.

Revelation 16
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

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 [pachaz – ebullition] as water [this tells of the advice of the serpent, as one of God’s children, with unbridled license, recklessly reinterpreting His word], you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed [went into the women – God’s people who have His words]; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch [took God’s place].
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren [names meaning, those hearing and joining this teaching that replaced God’s]; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not you into their secret [their hidden counsel]; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not you united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall [by this they brought death on all man, and removed the protection found in the garden].
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel [speaking of the continual scattering of God’s people into many sects].
8 Judah [the leaders God chooses], you are he whom your brethren shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet [speaking of the Davidic king line], until Shiloh come [meaning peace and tranquility – the one {Joseph’s seed – the one separated} from who it will again flow – see Ezekiel 21:27 and the overturning]; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine [this speaking of the lowly {Zechariah 9:9}, God’s elect remnant, outside the established sects, bound until Shiloh comes, when they are loosed]; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun [the lowly raised up at the LORD’s coming] shall dwell at the haven of the sea [safe from the masses]; and he shall be for an haven of ships [and saving any who come to the LORD through them]; and his border shall be unto Zidon [they will be the end of those who’ve hunted souls].
14 Issachar [through him will come the reward – the fruitful bough] is a strong ass [the LORD’s people, now become His goodly horse in the battle – Zechariah 10:3] couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan [the judge – speaking of strength returned and the righteous judgment of the world begins] shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way [as a serpent raised as a standard on a pole {nec}], an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels [this is the heel bruised in the judgment, meaning the serpents among the people, are rendered without effect], so that his rider shall fall backward [so the body of Christ will return to the place from which she fell – see, in Isaiah 28:13, what causes them to fall backward].
18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad [the LORD’s army, overcome until their return to Him], a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher [happy] his bread shall be fat [happiness returns when the word of God prospers], and he shall yield royal dainties [ma’adan – speaking of the royal line again raised up – referring us to its use in Proverbs 29:17, telling us this is when rest returns, when we, by correction, give the Father “delight”].
21 Naphtali [by this wrestling – unknowingly with the LORD] is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words [our tongue {the word of God} is loosed and we teach it as received directly from Him].
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well [a tree of life by these waters of God]; whose branches run over the wall [the wall of lies men have created and teach]:
23 The archers [ba’al – the gods of this world whose teaching has blinded all form seeing the Father, in the son, the seed of the women who brings forth the man child – see Revelation 12:17] have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies [rabats – couches as a lion] under [the deep meaning that lies below the surface], blessings of the breasts, and of the womb [seed, the son]:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [all those who have come before us, and were only blessed with part of what is perfected in our return to the LORD] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin [the right hand of God’s power] shall ravin as a wolf [shall tear in pieces the wolf that has scattered the one flock]: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. [These last words are referring us to Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the son spoken of in beginning Isaiah 8, his name meaning he hastes to the spoil and is quick to the prey. He is the son foretold as coming by the virgin, later called Immanuel, as the advice, teaching, of the LORD comes, when men have formed a confederacy listening to the dead gods of the world.]

Deuteronomy 33
1 And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir [against the powers of the enemies mixed among us] unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran [when everything became clear, though His understanding], and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in your hand: and they sat down at your feet; every one shall receive of your words.
4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
5 And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.
7 And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be you an help to him from his enemies.
8 And of Levi he said, Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one, whom you did prove at Massah, and with whom you did strive at the waters of Meribah;
9 Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
10 They shall teach Jacob your judgments, and Israel your law: they shall put incense before you, and whole burnt sacrifice upon your altar.
11 Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.
12 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.
13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches [rabats {as a lion}] beneath,
14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth [geresh] by the moon,
15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
16 And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush [cnah – only appears here and five time in Exodus 3, all describing the LORD appearing to Moses as a Bush burning but never consumed by the fire]: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns [are the only power]: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim [those receiving this second blessing], and they are the thousands of Manasseh [those who’ve forgotten God and are now awakened from their sleep].
18 And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and, Issachar, in your tents.
19 They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.
20 And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head.
21 And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.
22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.
23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess you the west and the south.
24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.
25 Your shoes shall be iron and brass; and as your days, so shall your strength be.
26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun [the name of God’s people who prosper, are blessed, by following His good advice], who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in his excellency on the sky.
27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out [garash] the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them.
28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! and your enemies shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places.

Song of Solomon 4
12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits [meged]; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon [pure waters from the mountain].
16 Awake, O north wind; and come, you south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits [meged].

Song of Solomon 7
1 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field [into the earth]; let us lodge in the villages.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give you my loves.
13 The mandrakes [duwday] give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant [meged] fruits, new and old, which I have laid up [tsaphan] for you, O my beloved.

The word duwday only appears after this once, in Jeremiah 24:1, as Jeremiah (Jehovah rising and raising us with Him) sees the two “baskets” of fruit, the good and the evil.

Jeremiah 24
1 The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets [duwday] of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus says the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

Zephaniah 2
1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger come upon you.
3 Seek you the LORD, all you meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.
4 For Gaza [their strongholds] shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon [and in judgment they shall be] a desolation: they shall drive out [garash] Ashdod [the powerful] at the noon day, and Ekron [eradicated – as thorns of neglect torn up by their roots] shall be rooted up.
5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites [the executioner]! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan [who have been zealous against Me], the land of the Philistines [the foreign invaders], I will even destroy you, that there shall be no inhabitant.
6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.
7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon [judgment] shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.
8 I have heard the reproach of Moab [from the mouths of the gates of hell], and the reviling of the children of Ammon [who exalt themselves above God], whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
9 Therefore as I live, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab [the gates of hell] shall be as Sodom [burned], and the children of Ammon [those who exalt themselves above God] as Gomorrah [ruin], even the breeding of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.
10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.
11 The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
12 You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by my sword.
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; for he shall uncover the cedar work.
15 This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passes by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

Hosea 9
14 Give them, O LORD: what will you give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out [garash] of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Micah 2
7 O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?
8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: you pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
9 The women of my people have you cast out [garash] from their pleasant houses; from their children have you taken away my glory forever.
10 Arise you, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.
11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out [garash] of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Psalms 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you that leads Joseph like a flock; you that dwells between the cherubims, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your strength, and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause your face to shine; and we shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
5 You feed them with the bread of tears; and give them tears to drink in great measure.
6 You make us a strife unto our neighbors: and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause your face to shine; and we shall be saved.
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt: you have cast out [garash] the heathen, and planted it.
9 You prepared room before it, and did cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
12 Why have you then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood does waste it, and the wild beast of the field does devour it.
14 Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which your right hand has planted, and the branch that you made strong for yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
18 So will not we go back from you: quicken us, and we will call upon your name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause your face to shine; and we shall be saved.

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

Today’s title verse, Habakkuk 3:16, is the LORD speaking to all His people of the warning given, and the way He leads us back to Him. The “voice” is His, from the Hebrew word qowl, the same word appearing earlier in verse 10 describing when “the deep uttered His voice.” It there says the mountains saw Him and trembled, as “the overflowing of waters [this word] passed by.” It says by these his hand is lifted on high, which we know is referring back to verse 4 where we’re told, from His hand came horns (as rays of light), and there was the hiding of His power.

Habakkuk 3
1 A prayer of Habakkuk [meaning to take hold of, with His hand] the prophet upon Shigionoth [those who have strayed, been misled].
2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman [the place of the Theophany, where wisdom is found, after it is rescued from the enemies among us], and the Holy One from mount Paran [where things are made clear]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light [giving understanding]; he had horns [rays of light] coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
6 He stood, and measured [assessed] the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan [darkness – ignorance] in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian [strife – the places of endless argument] did tremble.
8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers [or their pollution by the lies of men]? was your anger against the rivers [or the lies in them]? was your wrath against the sea [into which the river flows their polluted information], that you did ride upon your horses and your chariots of salvation [yshuw’ah]?
9 Your bow was made quite naked, (according to the oaths of the tribes, even your word) [this parenthetical statement is referring us Joseph’s blessing written in Genesis 49]. Selah. You did cleave the earth with rivers [through which these pure waters flow].
10 The mountains saw you, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice [qowl], and lifted up his hands on high.
11 The sun and moon [church and state governments – misleaders] stood still in their habitation: at the light [understanding] of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear.
12 You did march through the land in indignation, you did thresh the heathen in anger.
13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering [‘arah – uncovering] the foundation unto the neck. Selah.
14 You did strike through with his staves the head [misleaders] of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
15 You did walk through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice [qowl]: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

The word used in verse 4 above to tell of the “hidden” power of the LORD, is the one time used word chebyown, meaning “a concealment.” It is said to be from the word chabah, meaning “to secret.”

The deeper meaning (of Chebyown) is in the neglected suffix yown, which is from the word yownah (Jonah), meaning “probably from the same as 3196; a dove (apparently from the warmth of their mating).” The word the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary says yownah derives from is (H3196) yayin, “from an unused root meaning to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication, intoxication.”

This last aspect seems to be the root meaning in the name Jonah, as what escaped (effervesced) from the waters after spending the appropriate time (fermenting) trapped therein. The idea of yownah meaning warmth appears associated with the well-known word yowm meaning “to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb).”

As we know, the dove represents the sign of the end, as in when Noah knew it was time exit the ark, Jonah from the whale’s belly, and the LORD from the belly of the earth. The use of the word Chebyowm is telling of the secret last day, the sign of the end that has come, after we have spent the appropriate time fermenting the waters into wine, and, at the appropriate time, come out into the open. “God came from Teman [the place of the Theophany, where wisdom is found, after it is rescued from the enemies among us], and the Holy One from mount Paran [where things are made clear]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.”

Ezekiel 7
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 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 [yownah] of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak 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 [tsaphan]: for the robbers 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 to 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: 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.

Hosea 7
1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: 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.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes 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.
5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they have made ready their heart 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; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that call unto me.
8 Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned [see Zechariah 10:9].
9 Strangers [misleaders] have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, 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 [God’s people in this latter time] also is like a silly dove [yownah] without heart [deluded and unable to see He has reached the promised end, after the latter rain]: they call to Egypt [to their oppressors], they go to Assyria [to the communists, thinking these oppressors’ misleading will deliver them].
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 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, 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 in the land of Egypt [this land controlled by oppression].

One of the five times the word chabah appears is in Jeremiah 49:10 telling of now when the LORD has uncovered the hidden things of Esau. They are the desperately wicked things of his heart, sought out by the LORD this woeful day.

Obadiah 1
6 How are the things of Esau [the enemies mixed among us] searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
7 All the men of your confederacy [the men you have joined with, here in My nation] have brought you even to the border [this end time boundary]: the men that were at peace with you have deceived you, and [through deception] prevailed against you; they that eat your bread have laid a wound under you: there is none understanding in him [their ways and ideas are to produce ignorance of truth, the demoralization of confusion now turned to helpless delusion].
8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9 And your mighty men, O Teman [the so-called wise men of the world, the sorcerers of Baal], shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
10 For your violence against your brother Jacob [my people, even though they are now ignorant and in rebellion against Me] shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.”

Jeremiah 49
9 If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself [chabah – see Jeremiah 16 & 17 below for why he isn’t able to hid himself, and what is uncovered is reported here]: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not.
11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.
12 For thus says the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and are you he that shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.
13 For I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that Bozrah [the sheepfold – God’s people] shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.
14 I have heard a rumor [shmuw’ah – the report] from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
15 For, lo, I will make you small [as a little horn] among the heathen, and despised among men.
16 Your terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you [little horn] that dwells in the clefts of the rock, that holds the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence, says the LORD.
17 Also Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me [Michael standing]? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd [ra’ah] that will stand before me?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [the so-called wise men of the world]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
21 The earth is moved at the noise [qowl – the voice of the Archangel] of their fall, at the cry the noise [qowl – the same voice] thereof was heard in the Red sea.
22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah [the Archangel, the voice from the LORD’s mouth, shall stir up and protect the flock of God]: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs [Selah!].

Jeremiah 16
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid [tsaphan] from mine eyes.
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

Jeremiah 17
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.
5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
16 As for me, I have not hastened from [‘uwts – I have not rushed ahead of] being a pastor to follow you [LORD]: neither have I desired the woeful day [‘anash – the same word as “desperately wicked” in verse 9 above]; you know: that which came out of my lips was right before you.

From the previous post (16 February 2021):
In the same day, also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their Masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

The above, Zephaniah 1:9, is a warning to the violent and deceitful, “in the same day” earlier in the chapter described. It’s speaking to the remnant of Baal, the Chemarims secretly hidden in the priesthood. The name Chemarims is transliterated from the three times used word kamar, meaning “from 3648; properly, an ascetic (as if shrunk with self-maceration), i.e. an idolatrous priest (only in plural).” The ideas, in the words ascetic and maceration, tell of those who, through abstinence and self-discipline, present an outward appearance of holiness, while inwardly they’re ravenous wolves: full of “violence and deceit.”

In Matthew 7:15, the LORD speaks of these men, the false priests and false prophets of our day, whose churches are filled with their fruit, parishioners of every denomination who’ve been taught victimizing the “white conservative man” is holiness (the very definition of racism). They demonize them with the broadest of brushes, falsely accusing all and violently attacking any who refuse to bow to these taught idols, the ideas and ways of Baal. These false teachers are trees of violence and deceit, and their fruits are soldiers carrying out their evil plan.

The problem is compounded in the conservative church, whose own ideas and ways have transformed their congregations into women. They are overgrown with the doctrines of neglect, thorns and briers just as piercing and painful as their counterparts’ destroying them. It’s time for men to be men again. The LORD of Hosts is mustering an army of such, those willing and able to stand against the whiles of devils: their violence and deceit (gaslighting).

Revelation 18
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.
7 How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.

Matthew 7
13 Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
21 Not every one that says unto me, LORD, LORD, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

As we know, these men’s works are the ways of Edom sought out.

Obadiah 1
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you [little horn] that dwells in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
4 Though you exalt yourself as the eagle [as My Nation], and though you set your nest among the stars [among God’s people], thence will I bring you down, says the LORD.
5 [My people, I ask you,] If thieves came to you, if robbers by night, (how are you cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes?
6 How are the things of Esau [the enemies mixed among us] searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
7 All the men of your confederacy [the men you have joined with, here in My nation] have brought you even to the border [this end time boundary]: the men that were at peace with you have deceived you, and [through deception] prevailed against you; they that eat your bread have laid a wound under you: there is none understanding in him [their ways and ideas are to produce ignorance of truth, the demoralization of confusion now turned to helpless delusion].
8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9 And your mighty men, O Teman [the so-called wise men of the world, the sorcerers of Baal], shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
10 For your violence against your brother Jacob [my people, even though they are now ignorant and in rebellion against Me] shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.”

For those who actually know the LORD, who’ve loved and kept this word, the questions posed in verse 6 are rhetorical. They’re answered in the surrounding verses as the LORD define the enemies, so, even though disguised as us among us, we can distinguish them by the fruit of good and evil. They are the enemies of truth, known false accusers and liars, among us, telling known lies and accusing with known false accusations, gaslighting any who refuse their distorted and delusional versions of a non-existent reality. (Their tactic of gaslighting has worked, or is at work, in everything from transgenderism, global-warning, racism, to the denial of election fraud. Deny any of these in favor of the reality and watch the relentless counterattacks – more known lies and more false accusations. They’ve even created a term, a new vocation, “fact-checker,” aimed at anyone who publicly states obvious reality.)

As we know, the name Zephaniah is from the Hebrew word tsaphan, meaning “to hide (by covering over); by implication, to hoard or reserve; figuratively to deny; specifically (favorably) to protect, (unfavorably) to lurk.”

We have seen it (the word tsaphan), in Ezekiel 7:22, rendered as the “secret” place of the LORD, which is polluted by the robbers who’ve entered and now possess the houses they’ve defiled. In the previous post, in Psalms 27:5, we saw it as the pavilion in which the LORD “hides” us in this time of trouble. In other posts, we’ve discussed it as the things the LORD has “laid up” for this time, to give to His beloved, the son and the children God has given him.

Isaiah 8
…O Immanuel.
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy [of the irrational and deluded, those who wear the mark, the mask, showing they follow and kneel to the advice of ignorance {Does this offend you?}], to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony [this word of God, which is His seal], seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs [the standard lifted to show the way] 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 [the voices of the known dead], and unto wizards [the so-called experts of this world] that peep, and that mutter [broad-casting their spells to mislead]: should not a people seek unto their God? [should they be looking] for the living to the dead [the familiar spirit – known liars telling known lies]?
20 [They should be looking] To the law and to the [this] testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry [because they refuse this manna]: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and [in the resulting ignorance] look upward [and see darkness].
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness [ignorance], dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [into ever greater delusion, as they have].

Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you will receive my words, and hide [tsaphan] my commandments with you;
2 So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He lays up [tsaphan] sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints.
9 Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve you, understanding [light] shall keep you:
12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man [the misleaders and their advice], from the man that speak froward [deceptive] things;
13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness [ignorance];
14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness [the deceptions] of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward [are deceived] in their paths:
16 To deliver you from the strange woman [the fallen away {apostate} church], even from the stranger which flatters [telling you how good you are and everything you’re doing is good, when there is none good, except God who will never mislead us] with her words;
17 Which forsakes the guide [the good shepherd] of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
20 That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Isaiah 28
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report [shmuw’ah – the sound doctrine, teaching, the rumor of Ezekiel 7:26].

Psalms 81
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder: I proved you at the waters of Meribah [when the children of Israel tried the LORD, and He made water flow understanding from the Rock who is Christ]. Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in you; neither shall you worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD would have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever.
16 He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied you.

In the same day, also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their Masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

In the same day, also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their Masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

The above, Zephaniah 1:9, is a warning to the violent and deceitful, “in the same day” earlier in the chapter described. It’s speaking to the remnant of Baal, the Chemarims secretly hidden in the priesthood. The name Chemarims is transliterated from the three times used word kamar, meaning “from 3648; properly, an ascetic (as if shrunk with self-maceration), i.e. an idolatrous priest (only in plural).” The ideas, in the words ascetic and maceration, tell of those who, through abstinence and self-discipline, present an outward appearance of holiness, while inwardly they’re ravenous wolves: full of “violence and deceit.”

In Matthew 7:15, the LORD speaks of these men, the false priests and false prophets of our day, whose churches are filled with their fruit, parishioners of every denomination who’ve been taught victimizing the “white conservative man” is holiness (the very definition of racism). They demonize them with the broadest of brushes, falsely accusing all and violently attacking any who refuse to bow to these taught idols, the ideas and ways of Baal. These false teachers are trees of violence and deceit, and their fruits are soldiers carrying out their evil plan.

The problem is compounded in the conservative church, whose own ideas and ways have transformed their congregations into women. They are overgrown with the doctrines of neglect, thorns and briers just as piercing and painful as their counterparts’ destroying them. It’s time for men to be men again. The LORD of Hosts is mustering an army of such, those willing and able to stand against the whiles of devils: their violence and deceit (gaslighting).

Revelation 18
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.
7 How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.

Matthew 7
13 Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
21 Not every one that says unto me, LORD, LORD, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

As we know, these men’s works are the ways of Edom sought out.

Obadiah 1
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you [little horn] that dwells in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
4 Though you exalt yourself as the eagle [as My Nation], and though you set your nest among the stars [among God’s people], thence will I bring you down, says the LORD.
5 [My people, I ask you,] If thieves came to you, if robbers by night, (how are you cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes?
6 How are the things of Esau [the enemies mixed among us] searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
7 All the men of your confederacy [the men you have joined with, here in My nation] have brought you even to the border [this end time boundary]: the men that were at peace with you have deceived you, and [through deception] prevailed against you; they that eat your bread have laid a wound under you: there is none understanding in him [their ways and ideas are to produce ignorance of truth, the demoralization of confusion now turned to helpless delusion].
8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9 And your mighty men, O Teman [the so-called wise men of the world, the sorcerers of Baal], shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
10 For your violence against your brother Jacob [my people, even though they are now ignorant and in rebellion against Me] shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.”

For those who actually know the LORD, who’ve loved and kept this word, the questions posed in verse 6 are rhetorical. They’re answered in the surrounding verses as the LORD define the enemies, so, even though disguised as us among us, we can distinguish them by the fruit of good and evil. They are the enemies of truth, known false accusers and liars, among us, telling known lies and accusing with known false accusations, gaslighting any who refuse their distorted and delusional versions of a non-existent reality. (Their tactic of gaslighting has worked, or is at work, in everything from transgenderism, global-warning, racism, to the denial of election fraud. Deny any of these in favor of the reality and watch the relentless counterattacks – more known lies and more false accusations. They’ve even created a term, a new vocation, “fact-checker,” aimed at anyone who publicly states obvious reality.)

As we know, the name Zephaniah is from the Hebrew word tsaphan, meaning “to hide (by covering over); by implication, to hoard or reserve; figuratively to deny; specifically (favorably) to protect, (unfavorably) to lurk.”

We have seen it (the word tsaphan), in Ezekiel 7:22, rendered as the “secret” place of the LORD, which is polluted by the robbers who’ve entered and now possess the houses they’ve defiled. In the previous post, in Psalms 27:5, we saw it as the pavilion in which the LORD “hides” us in this time of trouble. In other posts, we’ve discussed it as the things the LORD has “laid up” for this time, to give to His beloved, the son and the children God has given him.

Isaiah 8
…O Immanuel.
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy [of the irrational and deluded, those who wear the mark, the mask, showing they follow and kneel to the advice of ignorance {Does this offend you?}], to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony [this word of God, which is His seal], seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs [the standard lifted to show the way] 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 [the voices of the known dead], and unto wizards [the so-called experts of this world] that peep, and that mutter [broad-casting their spells to mislead]: should not a people seek unto their God? [should they be looking] for the living to the dead [the familiar spirit – known liars telling known lies]?
20 [They should be looking] To the law and to the [this] testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry [because they refuse this manna]: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and [in the resulting ignorance] look upward [and see darkness].
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness [ignorance], dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [into ever greater delusion, as they have].

Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you will receive my words, and hide [tsaphan] my commandments with you;
2 So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He lays up [tsaphan] sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints.
9 Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve you, understanding [light] shall keep you:
12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man [the misleaders and their advice], from the man that speak froward [deceptive] things;
13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness [ignorance];
14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness [the deceptions] of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward [are deceived] in their paths:
16 To deliver you from the strange woman [the fallen away {apostate} church], even from the stranger which flatters [telling you how good you are and everything you’re doing is good, when there is none good, except God who will never mislead us] with her words;
17 Which forsakes the guide [the good shepherd] of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
20 That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Isaiah 28
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report [shmuw’ah – the sound doctrine, teaching, the rumor of Ezekiel 7:26 below].

Ezekiel 7
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 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 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 [tsaphan]: for the robbers 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 to 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: 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.

2 Kings 23
1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.
3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah [who found the book, the word of God – whose inheritance is Jehovah] the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron [the fields of the darkness they created], and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel [the house of God].
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests [kamar], whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun [the darkened church], and to the moon [the darkened civil government], and to the planets [the deceiver, who if followed in the darkness mislead], and to all the host of heaven.

Hosea 10
1 Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven [the idols put in God place making the house worthless]: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests [kamar – the idolatrous priests] thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria [into communism] for a present to king Jareb [he will contend]: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

Jeremiah 16
14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15 But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid [tsaphan] from mine eyes.
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

Jeremiah 17
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
16 As for me, I have not hastened from [‘uwts – I have not rushed ahead of] being a pastor to follow you [LORD]: neither have I desired the woeful day [‘anash – the same word as “desperately wicked” in verse 9 above; you know: that which came out of my lips was right before you.

The word “pastor” in verse 16 above is the Hebrew word ra’ah, the word rendered “shepherd” in Jeremiah 49:19 & 50:44, and in Ezekiel 37:24.

Jeremiah 49
14 I have heard a rumor [shmuw’ah] from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
15 For, lo, I will make you small [as a little horn] among the heathen, and despised among men.
16 Your terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you [little horn] that dwells in the clefts of the rock, that holds the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence, says the LORD.
17 Also Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me [Michael standing]? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd [ra’ah] that will stand before me?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [the so-called wise men of the world]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
21 The earth is moved at the noise [qowl – the voice of the Archangel] of their fall, at the cry the noise [qowl – the same voice] thereof was heard in the Red sea.
22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah [the Archangel, the voice from the LORD’s mouth, shall stir up and protect the flock of God]: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs [Selah!].

Jeremiah 50
31 Behold, I am against you, O you most proud, says the LORD God of hosts: 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; they refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer [ga’al – their kinsman] 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 deceptions {their gaslighting} to manipulate and control the world], says the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon [confusion now turned delusion], and upon her princes, and upon her [so-called] wise men.
36 A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.
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 upon their idols [they’ve become insane from following their own ways and ideas].
39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls [who hunt in the darkness] shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah 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 [tsaphown, from tsaphan – those I AM hid here for this moment], and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts [yrekah – to flank] of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice [quwl – the voice of the Archangel] shall roar like the sea [like a lion for the swelling of Jordan], and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon 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 shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them [the little horn] suddenly run away from her: 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 [ra’ah] that will stand before me [paniym – who will stand with me – in My presence]?
45 Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
46 At the noise [qowl – the voice of God heard from the Archangel] of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Ezekiel 37
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 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 [ra’ah]: 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 for ever: 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.

From the post of 8 January 2021:
The question humbly posed to the LORD today: What is His plan from here? His answer follows.

Seeing His answer, in Zephaniah 1, we see He is speaking of His provision of hidden treasure, specifically reserved for this moment, and (the truly valuable) with power to bring all things under His glorious rule. As we know, Zephaniah, from tsaphan and Jehovah, means Jehovah has secreted, or Jehovah has treasured (hidden in His treasure house). The height of ignorance is to think the LORD God Almighty would not have provided (planned) response for this ending. We know He said, “He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.” (Romans 9:28 quoting Isaiah 10:23)

The LORD’s answer: Zephaniah 1
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: 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 and desolation, a day of darkness 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.

Zephaniah 2
1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger come upon you.
3 Seek you the LORD, all you meek of the earth [for the meek shall inherit the earth], which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.

The word “meekness” above, defining the persona of the meek, is the Hebrew word ‘anavah, meaning, “condescension, human and subjective (modesty), or divine and objective (clemency).” It is only used five other times, all describing humility (the character of the humble). David twice uses it, 2 Samuel 22:36, and Psalms 18:35, both in his saying it is the LORD’s “gentleness” that made him great, meaning it is the LORD’s condescension, in him and through him working, leading and speaking to His people.

2 Samuel 22
31 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.
32 For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?
33 God is my strength and power: and he makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet: and sets me upon my high places.
35 He teaches my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation: and your gentleness [‘anavah] has made me great.
37 You have enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip.
38 I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; and turned not again until I had consumed them.
39 And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet.
40 For you have girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me have you subdued under me.
41 You have also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.
42 They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
43 Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.

In the time of trouble the LORD shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

In the time of trouble the LORD shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

Psalms 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said unto you, Your face, LORD, will I seek.
9 Hide not your face far from me; put not your servant away in anger: you have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

The word “trouble” above is the Hebrew word ra’, which we know is often rendered evil. The first word “hide” in verse 5 is tsaphan, which we’ve seen meaning “to hide (by covering over); by implication, to hoard or reserve; figuratively to deny; specifically (favorably) to protect, (unfavorably) to lurk.”

The word rendered “pavilions” is cok, a four times used word meaning “a hut (as of entwined boughs); also a lair.” It is used twice to tell of the resting place of lions, first in Psalms 10:9 rendered “den,” and then in Jeremiah 25:38 as “covert.” The one other time it appears, in Psalms 76:2, it’s telling us this place, His secret place where He hides us, is in Salem: in peace, no matter what “troubles” come. As we know, Salem is the original name of what is later called Jerusalem.

The Salem is Jebus, meaning “trodden, i.e. threshing-place; Jebus, the aboriginal name of Jerusalem.” In the origin of this name, we’re told of when the LORD tramples (trodden) the enemies, as the grapes of wrath, under His feet. The Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary and the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon say the name is from the twelve times used word buwc, meaning “to trample (literally or figuratively).” The definitions seem to ignore the prefix “Je,” from the word yada’, meaning it’s when we will “know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.).”

The other three times Salem appears it’s speaking of Melchisedec its king, the Priest of the Most High God, through who comes God’s presence and blessing. It’s through the LORD in him he is made a priest, who we are told is as Christ, a son of God by His proclamation.

Hebrews 5
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.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles [stoicheion – elements] of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God:
8 But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you [as He blessed Abraham with wine and bread – the communion of His presence, His word and work], and multiplying I will multiply you.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil [into the presence of God];
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec [by the proclamation and presence of God in him, veiled in His flesh].

Hebrews 7
1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually.

In Genesis 14:17 we are told one of the kings Abram slaughtered was named Chedolaomer, who is earlier identified as the king of Elam. His name is said to mean “handful of sheaves.” It appears to be associated with the Hebrew words kedab (kdab), meaning false, and leowm (lowm), meaning to gather, as a community (as sheaves bound together). As we know, Elam means eternity and is from ‘alam, meaning “to veil from sight, i.e. conceal (literally or figuratively).”

These names tell us of Abram’s (Abraham’s) defeating the falsehoods that have veiled the LORD, hidden in the flesh.

The LORD, in Jeremiah 49:38, says He will set His throne in Elam.

Jeremiah 49
34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, says the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:
38 And I will set my throne in Elam [the perfection, see Hebrews 11:40], and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, says the LORD.
39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says the LORD.

Treading (buwc) down of these men, the kings of the earth who’ve led it into hell, is spoken of in Zechariah 10:5. It comes after God’s people have become His goodly horse in the battle, after and by the latter rain He sends to give them understanding.

Zechariah 10
1 Ask you of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts has visited his flock the house of Judah, and has made them as his goodly horse in the battle.
4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every governor together.
5 And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down [buwc] their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt [of oppression], and gather them out of Assyria [from the communists]; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead [the testimony] and Lebanon [and bring purity to the high place]; and place shall not be found for them.
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria [communists] shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt [the rule of the oppressors] shall depart away.
12 And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 49
14 I have heard a rumor [shmuw’ah – a report, this sound doctrine] from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
15 For, lo, I will make you small among the heathen, and despised among men.
16 Your terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you [little horn] that dwell in the clefts of the rock, that holds the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence, says the LORD.
17 Also Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan [when the dead rise up in the pride of their own ignorance] against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: 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?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [the so-called wise men of the world]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.

Psalms 44
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old.
2 How you did drive out the heathen with your hand, and planted them; how you did afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you had a favor unto them.
4 You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through you will we push down our enemies: through your name will we tread them under [buwc] that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise your name forever. Selah.
9 But you have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and have scattered us among the heathen.
12 You sell your people for naught, and do not increase your wealth by their price.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten you, neither have we dealt falsely in your covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your way;
19 Though you have sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleep you, O LORD? arise, cast us not off forever.
24 Wherefore hide you your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for your mercies’ sake. [In reference to this verse, see Zechariah 10:8 above and Hosea 7:13 below.]

Hosea 7
1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: 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.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes 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.
5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they have made ready their heart 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; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that call unto me.
8 Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned [see Zechariah 10:9 above].
9 Strangers [misleaders] have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, 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 [God’s people in this latter time] also is like a silly dove without heart [deluded and unable to see He has reached the promised end, after the latter rain]: they call to Egypt [to their oppressors], they go to Assyria [to the communists, thinking these oppressors’ misleading will deliver them].
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 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, 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 in the land of Egypt [this land controlled by oppression].

Hosea 13
1 When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.
5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
9 O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.
10 I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave you a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Jeremiah 51
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon [confusion now turned delusion that rules over the world as the shadow of death], 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.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad [confused and delusional].
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: 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.

Psalms 10
1 Why stand you afar off, O LORD? why hide you yourself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride does persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and blesses the covetous, whom the LORD abhors.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; your judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he scorns them.
6 He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places does he murder the innocent: his eyes are secretly set against the poor.
9 He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den [cok]: he lies in wait to catch the poor: he does catch the poor, when he draws him into his net.
10 He crouches, and humbles himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He has said in his heart, God has forgotten: he hides his face; he will never see it.
12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand: forget not the humble.
13 Wherefore does the wicked contemn God? he has said in his heart, You will not require it.
14 You have seen it; for you behold mischief and spite, to requite it with your hand: the poor commits himself unto you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break you the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till you find none.
16 The LORD is King forever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
17 LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble: you will prepare their heart, you will cause your ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Jeremiah 25
34 Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, you principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and you shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD has spoiled their pasture.
37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
38 He has forsaken his covert [cok], as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.

Revelation 18
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.
7 How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is your judgment come.

Revelation 19
1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the LORD our God:
2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he has judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
3 And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up forever and ever.
4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, and you that fear him, both small and great.
6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia: for the LORD God omnipotent reigns.
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he says unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he says unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And LORD Of Lords.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Psalms 76
1 In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel.
2 In Salem also is his tabernacle [cok], and his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There breaks he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
4 You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
5 The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.
6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7 You, even you, are to be feared: and who may stand in your sight when once you are angry?
8 You did cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
9 When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise you: the remainder of wrath shall you restrain.
11 Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.
12 He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.

For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

If you haven’t loved and kept this word, you will not understand the voice of the LORD heard in this message. Pass on by, I never knew you.

The title verse, Isaiah 63:4, is the LORD speaking of His vengeance as what redeems, purchases back, His people from those who possess them: the spirits that have control of mind and body. The chapter describes Him coming from Edom, who we know as Esau, the enemy mixed among us, referred to in the name Bozrah meaning the flock (sheepfold).

The picture painted in the following words is of the LORD coming to save his flock. He is as a good shepherd among them whose garments are stained by the blood of the enemies, wolves among the sheep, and in vengeance trampling them under His feet, as grapes of wrath in the winepress.

Isaiah 63
1 Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
2 Wherefore are you red in your apparel, and your garments like him that treads in the wine-fat?
3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.
6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
7 I will mention the lovingkindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindness.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
14 As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?
16 Doubtless you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: you, O LORD, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting.
17 O LORD, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
18 The people of your holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19 We are yours: you never barest rule over them; they were not called by your name.

The words “redeemed” and “redeemer” are the same Hebrew word, ga’al, meaning “to redeem (according to the Oriental law of kinship), i.e. to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative’s property, marry his widow, etc.).”

The LORD named me Timothy for many reasons, the greatest to say I am the price He paid, Christ in me, Jehovah’s Personifying His Salvation in my flesh, doing the work necessary to Redeem the Property He purchased. I am His next of kin, here to fulfill my obligation.

Strong’s Greek Dictionary #5095: Timotheos (pronounced tee-moth’-eh-os) from 5092 and 2316; dear to God; Timotheus, a Christian:–Timotheus, Timothy.

Strong’s Greek Dictionary #5092: time (pronounced tee-may’) from 5099; a value, i.e. money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy, esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself:–honor, precious, price, some.

The redeemed, the Redeemer, and the redemption are earlier described in the words of the previous chapter, Isaiah 62.

Isaiah 62
1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
2 And the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
3 You shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shalt be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have labored:
9 But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12 And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed [ga’al] of the LORD: and you shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

The first appearances of the Greek word time are in Matthew 27;6 & 9, when the “price,” the little value, is placed on the LORD by the betrayer and those who purchased Him (little here, and there little). The irony is, the LORD, the Most Valued, willingly gave all to redeem His kin from those to who the other (like-kind) betrayers sold them.

Philippians 2
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 [the mind of Christ, as in verse 4 & 5 above].
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.

Jeremiah only uses the word ga’al twice, first in Jeremiah 31:11 telling of when the LORD ransomed Jacob, and in Jeremiah 50:34 speaking of the Redeemer whose name is the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 31
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
11 For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed [ga’al] him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together [nahar] to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.
15 Thus says the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah [the city on the hill – from where the light will shine], lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel [Rachel – the teacher of God’s people, who is yet barren] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16 Thus says the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in your end [‘achariyth], says the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own border.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says the LORD.
21 Set you up waymarks, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
27 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the LORD.
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, says the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 50
25 The LORD has opened [pathach] his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the LORD God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.
27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, 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.
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: 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; they refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer [ga’al] 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, 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: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.
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 upon their idols.
39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah 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.
43 The king of Babylon 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 shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: 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; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51
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.

Ezekiel 32
1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh [the despots who hold God’s people captive] king of Egypt, and say unto him, You are like a young lion of the nations, and you are as a whale [tanniyn – the underlying cause that troubles the waters] in the seas: and you came forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
3 Thus says the LORD God; I will therefore spread out my net over you with a company of many people; and they shall bring you up in my net.
4 Then will I leave you upon the land, I will cast you forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon you, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with you. [See Revelation 19:17 thru 21]
5 And I will lay your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.
6 I will also water with your blood the land wherein you swim, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you.
7 And when I shall put you out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and set darkness upon your land, says the LORD God. [These verses tell of the church and state governments, all the people who once understood, from the bloody waters now become ignorant, in darkness without light.]
9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.
10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.
11 For thus says the LORD God; The sword of the king of Babylon [confusion now turned mass delusion] shall come upon you.
12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.
13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. [No longer will men trouble, stir, the waters. The mire they stir is as blood in the waters.]
14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the LORD God.
15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.
16 This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, says the LORD God.
17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
19 Whom do you pass in beauty? go down, and be you laid with the uncircumcised [in the flesh in the hell they’ve created].
20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.
21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell [Sheol – the habitation of the dead – who are ignorant and don’t know they are dead] with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised [in the flesh], slain by the sword.
22 Asshur [the communists] is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:
23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.
24 There is Elam [eternity] and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain.
26 There is Meshech [those the LORD has drawn out], Tubal [who the LORD brought – into the light of our understanding], and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell [Sheol] with their weapons of war [deceit and violence]: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
28 Yea, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with them that are slain with the sword.
29 There is Edom [the enemies mixed among us], her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.
30 There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians [all who hunt the souls of men], which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.
31 Pharaoh [the despots who’ve held God’s people captive] shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, says the LORD God.
32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the LORD God.

Revelation 19
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And LORD Of LORDs.
17 And I saw an angel [like Samson] standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Psalms 34
1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened [nahar – and were given understand that brought them to Him]: and their faces were not ashamed [and they saw Him face to face, which is the expected end].
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him.
9 O fear the LORD, you his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
11 Come, you children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile [deception].
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: You which rejoice in a thing of naught, which say, “Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?”

Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: You which rejoice in a thing of naught, which say, “Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?”

Friends, the above is the LORD continuing from the previous post. The two questions speak of actions undertaken knowing they don’t, can’t, end well. The first concludes in a catastrophic fall for horse and rider, and the second is an irrational impossibility that produces nothing. The horse here is symbolic of people, whose leaders ride them as their strength. The ox and plow represent our economy and its foundational principles.

If you didn’t read the previous post(s), what follows can’t be fully understood.

The topic is the judgment of the little horn: this nation in which God’s people are now held captive by the oppressors in control. The title is Amos 6:11 & 12, a chapter beginning by saying woe to those at ease in Zion, who trust in the mountain of Samaria.

Zion speaks of the seats of power where the wicked now stretch out themselves and feed on the flock (God’s people). Samaria describes the nation’s people at large: God’s people and the enemies mixed among them, all worshiping idols put in God’s place. It tells of good leadership ended, all those in these positions burned up, and none allowed to mention the true God or acknowledge this is His judgment. They are all at ease and hate those speaking God’s truth: rebuking in the gate and speaking uprightly.

This takes us back to those who’ve desired this day to come: the earlier woe in Amos 5:18. These are the religious, the ignorant who think they’re following God, who have no ideas they’re in darkness following devils and worshipping idols put in God’s place.

Romans 2
29 But he is a Jew [a true believer, and a leader of God people], which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart [corrected into agreement with God’s foundational ideas, upon which all decisions are based], in the spirit [understanding what the law is meant to accomplish and making this mission the priority], and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Romans 3
1 What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God [the words of His mouth, passed on into perfection and full understanding].
3 For what if some did not [do not] believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.
5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
[These verses speak of the idea we saw in 1 Chronicles 4:22, God allowing errors {falsehood}, to start the fire that burns them away, so God’s word can return to its rightful place. This is as Peter writes of in 2 Peter 3, of the word reserved unto fire, the corrupt ideas melting away, ending the old heaven and earth, and replacing them with a new, wherein dwells righteousness. It is what Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 11:19, saying “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved [by God] may be made manifest among you.”]
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understands, there is none that seek after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that what things so-ever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped [all continuing the bark out their old corrupt ignorance, who refuse to let this word be heard, are under the law – “if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them”], and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [Jehovah’s Salvation manifested in the flesh]:
25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by [their] faith [in Him], and uncircumcision through [our] faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law [so the whole world will know it stands in error].

Psalms 19
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can understand his [own] errors? cleanse you me from secret faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Amos 5
1 Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3 For thus says the LORD God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
4 For thus says the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you shall live:
5 But seek not Bethel [where the idols are put in My place], nor enter into Gilgal [where doctrine is constantly drive by societal winds], and pass not to Beersheba [where the fountain of life has become the shadow of death]: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught.
6 Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
7 You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8 Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, says thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, says the LORD.
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light [a time of ignorance, when all have no knowledge nor understanding of the LORD God].
19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him [they flee from one misleader to the next].
20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25 Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

The last verses above are quoted in Acts 7 as Stephen speaks of times like these when God’s people reject those He sends to lead them, and instead follow idols they’ve created and put in His place. Stephen is stoned to death for delivering God’s message. His name means crowned: the REWARD for his courageous faithfulness, which is the LORD’s manifested presence.

Acts 7
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the LORD your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall you hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O you house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which you made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him an house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will you build me? saith the LORD: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?
51 You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears [refused to hear Him as they did Moses], and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, LORD Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, LORD, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Amos 6
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
2 Pass you unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go you to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?
3 You that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;
6 That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
8 The LORD God has sworn by himself, says the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.
10 And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burns him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with you? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold your tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.
11 For, behold, the LORD commanded, and he will smite the great house [the house of David]
with breaches, and the little [horn] house with clefts.
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
13 You which rejoice in a thing of naught, which say, Have we not taken to us horns [power] by our own strength?
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath [from the time you trusted in them – their walled fortress] unto the river of the wilderness [until I take you again into the wilderness – and where you will unlearn the ways of oppression and relearn my ways and ideas of peace].

Amos 7
1 Thus has the LORD God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers [locust – who will now destroy everything and leave it barn] in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowing.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O LORD God, forgive, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, says the LORD.
4 Thus has the LORD God shewed unto me: and, behold, the LORD God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O LORD God, cease, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, says the LORD God.
7 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.
8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what see you? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumb-line [to assess their condition – and I will prescribe what will make them “arise”] in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:
15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear you the word of the LORD: You say, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac.
17 Therefore thus says the LORD; Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you shall die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Amos 8
1 Thus has the LORD God shown unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what see you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howling in that day, says the LORD God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? [Speaking of now when God’s people think He’s come to rescue them so they can’t go back to their same of corrupt thinking – their ideas and ways, works and words, that led to desolation.]
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, says the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan [judgment], lives; and, The manner of Beersheba [the well of the promise] lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again. [These are, as now, the places where the idols were put is God’s place and called God – corrupting judgment and turning the waters of life into death.]

Amos 9
1 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.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5 And the LORD God of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.
7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians [covered in darkness – ignorance] unto me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the LORD that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.

Acts 15
15 And to this agrees the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the LORD, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, says the LORD, who does all these things.
18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

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. [Verse 22 below tells us this is an evil conscience {suneidesis, co-perception with those} that reverses good and evil {the misleading ideas in our minds}. It says what takes it away, reverses the reversal, is the LORD sacrifice that long-suffers to change our minds, washing it with pure water, meaning the uncorrupted word of God. This is the spirit of what the law is meant to accomplish.]
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 forever, 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 forever 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 [suneidesis – an agreement with hell], and our bodies washed with pure water. [Isaiah 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the {pure} waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. 19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.]
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 [in one body], 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 [held up for public mocking] 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.

Psalms 40
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 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.

Psalms 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament [the rightly divided word] shows his handy-work [is your arm revealed, the work of only your hand].
2 Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night show knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.
6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can understand his [own] errors? cleanse you me from secret faults [of which I am ignorant].
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.

For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.

When the above says “as you have done, it shall be done unto you” it speaks of the Judgment heard as a “rumor” from the LORD, which we know is from the Hebrew word shmuw’ah. In the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, its meaning is “something heard, i.e. an announcement.” We’ve seen it as the “report” in Isaiah 28:19, of which, its only vexation is to understand. It is translated the same in Isaiah 53:1, there, when believed, it’s the arm of the LORD revealed.

It (shmuw’ah) is also, in Isaiah 28:9, rendered “doctrine,” the verse asking who will understand it and the knowledge the LORD is teaching. As we know, it (the verse) continues, saying it’s only those “that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.” The “milk,” as we know, refers to the basic understanding needed as the foundation to receive the deeper meaning contained therein, within the doctrine reported.

As we’ve previously seen, the word here rendered “drawn” is the Hebrew word attiyq, meaning “removed, i.e. weaned; also antique.” It’s only used one other time, in 1 Chronicles 4:22, saying “‘these are ancient’ things.” The context is the deeper meanings are the ancient things, divinely engineered into the word. They’re meant to be supernaturally revealed, through learning coming from the LORD, as if drawn from the breast of the ancient of days.

The word rendered “things” in the above-referenced phrase, is dabar, meaning “a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; adverbially, a cause.” In 1 Chronicles 4:22, five names are used revealing the ancient meaning therein given: “Jokim, and the men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had the dominion in Moab, and Jashubi-lehem. And these are ancient things.” The meanings are, from the Brown-Briggs-Driver Hebrew Lexicon; Jokim, “Jehovah raises up;” Chozeba, “falsehood;” Joash, “given by the LORD;” Saraph, “to burn;” Moab (the gates of hell), Jashubi-lehem, “returner of bread.”

Jashubi is from the word re’shiyth, meaning “the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically, a first-fruit).” The verse tells of the LORD engineering what is false to be burned, the corrupt words of men as the gates holding the world in hell, and returning the bread (the word of God, from His mouth – Deuteronomy 8:3) to the first-fruits He raises up with His rising. These are the deep things given by the ancient of days.

2 Peter 3
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God [this same word of God] the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved [by the ancient of days] unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [apoleia] of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion – the corrupt, false, foundational ideas and ways of men – of which they should be ashamed and then loathe] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion – falsehood] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction [apoleia – perdition].

Friends, in the title, Obadiah 1:15, the LORD is speaking of the destruction of Edom: the enemies mixed among us. The earlier verses tell of, as now, when God’s people (Jacob – the brother they hate) have reached a point of self-devastation by following the false ideas and ways (idols) that cause the fires of hell. It says in this state, Esau took advantage and exploited their weakness, and rejoices in their destruction.

Obadiah
1 The vision of Obadiah [the servant of Jehovah]. Thus says the LORD GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumor [shmuw’ah – doctrine here reported, the true author yet unknown] from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise you, and let us rise up against her in battle.
2 Behold, I have made you small among the heathen: you are greatly despised.
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
4 Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the LORD.
5 If thieves came to you, if robbers by night, (how are you cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes?
6 How are the things of Esau [the enemies mixed among us] searched out [chaphas]! how are his hidden things sought up!
7 All the men of your confederacy have brought you even to the border: the men that were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you; they that eat your bread have laid a wound under you: there is none understanding in him.
8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9 And your mighty men, O Teman [the so-called wise men of the world], shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off [karath – see Psalms 37 below] by slaughter.
10 For your violence against your brother Jacob shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off [karath] forever.
11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even you were as one of them.
12 But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
13 You should not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, you should not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;
14 Neither should you have stood in the crossway, to cut off [karath] those of his that did escape; neither should you have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.
15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.
16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD has spoken it.
19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites [those who’ve been zealous against us], even unto Zarephath [unto their refining, purifying]; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad [when they are separated to the LORD], shall possess the cities of the south.
21 And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

As seen in previous posts, an identical Chaldee word attiyq, only used three times, appears in Daniel 7 as he tells of when the Judgment mentioned above occurs. He says it’s when the Ancient of Days comes to the son of man, meaning it comes when the LORD reveals the deep meaning He’s “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment,” as Peter says above in 2 Peter 3:7.

Daniel 7
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast [Babylon – confusion produced by following the ways and ideas of the “wise men” of the world, the big mouths, that as dogs in the night, never stop barking, which are the gates of hell, the shadow of death that now covers the earth], dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns [Europe].
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn [the USA], before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots [the powers of England, Spain, and France, who formerly controlled the American territories]: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down [see Isaiah 28:2 below], and the Ancient [attiyq] of days did sit [here in the USA], whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke: I beheld even till the beast [confusion] was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven [from where the elements of understanding were reserved], and came to the Ancient [attiyq – the deep understanding] of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.
16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
18 But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast [confusion], which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
20 And of the ten horns [Europe] that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
21 I beheld, and the same horn [the US Government] made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
22 Until the Ancient [attiyq] of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast [confusion] shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns [Europe] out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

Daniel tells us who the “little horn” is through the word he uses to describe it. As we know, a horn represents power, as in words and ideas followed, of a government or king. The word “little” in Daniel 7:9 above is the one time used Chaldee word z’eyr. It corresponds to the five times used (almost identical) Hebrew word ze’eyr, to which Daniel is referring us by his use.

It is used in Job 36:2 as Elihu (He is God) says, “Suffer me a little [ze’eyr], and I will show you that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.” It is used four times, in Isaiah 28:10 & 13, in telling of the LORD teaching, precept upon precept, line upon line, which is here “little,” and there “little.” It is here speaking to the drunkard of Ephraim, who we know as God’s people in the latter time, who think God’s teaching is a little thing, as it is here, as it was there.

As we know, Isaiah 28:6 speaks of this day of judgment, saying it is in the day when the LORD is crowned, as the morning of the new day, when He is the Spirit of Judgment to him that sits in Judgment.

Zechariah 4
7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel [who is born by coming out of confusion into understanding] you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word [dabar – things] 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 [little] things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet [this right assessment of the imbalance in judgment and the needed solution] in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Isaiah 28
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim [the leaders who have by ignorance misled God’s people in this latter day], whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing shall cast down [as in Daniel 7:9 above] to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem [tsphiyrah – a crown] of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way [ta’ah]; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way [ta’ah] through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit [‘qe] and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine [shmuw’ah – the report, teaching, the rumor of Ezekiel 7:26]? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts [“drawn” is attiyq – and now draw from the ancient of days].
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little [ze’eyr], and there a little [ze’eyr]:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little [ze’eyr], and there a little [ze’eyr]; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste [chuwsh].
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report [shmuw’ah – the sound doctrine, teaching, the rumor].
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [2 Samuel 5:20 – as water from His throne, breaking forth upon His enemies], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [Joshua 10:10 & 11 – His word reserved {frozen} in heaven, sent as great hailstones upon the wicked], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD GOD of hosts a consumption [kalah – a full end, as in Daniel 9:27], even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face [paniym – His presence] thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God does instruct him to discretion [mishpat – good judgment], and does teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

Ezekiel 7
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Also, you son of man, thus says the LORD GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 And mine eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
5 Thus says the LORD GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
6 An end [qets] is come, the end [qets] is come: it watches [quwts – awakens] for you; behold, it is come.
7 The morning [tsphiyrah – the crown, the crowning of the LORD’s chosen, the man of God, as was David, reuniting Judah and Israel under one king] 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 to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

Job 33
14 For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumbering upon the bed;
16 Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword [shelach].
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:
20 So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 Yea, his soul draws near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
23 If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness:
24 Then he is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:
26 He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.
27 He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
29 Lo, all these things works God oftentimes with man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light [understanding] of the living.

Job 36
2 Suffer me a little [ze’eyr], and I will show you that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 Behold, God is mighty, and despises not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.
6 He preserves not the life of the wicked: but gives right to the poor.
7 He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he does establish them forever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they be bound in fetters, and be held in cords of affliction;
9 Then he shows them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.
10 He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [shelach], and they shall die without knowledge.
13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he binds them.
14 They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.
15 He delivers the poor in his affliction, and opens their ears in oppression.
16 Even so would he have removed you out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on your table should be full of fatness.
17 But you have fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on you.
18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he takes you away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver you.
19 Will he esteem your riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this have you chosen rather than affliction.
22 Behold, God exalts by his power: who teaches like him?

Psalms 36
1 The transgression of the wicked says within my heart [says in my understanding], that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he has left off to be wise, and to do good.
4 He devises mischief upon his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good [towb]; he abhors not evil [‘ra].
5 Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and your faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains; your judgments are a great deep: O LORD, you preserve man and beast.
7 How excellent is your lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
9 For with you is the fountain of life: in your light [understanding] shall we see light [understanding].
10 O continue your lovingkindness unto them that know you; and your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

Psalms 37
1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be you envious against the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and truly you shall be fed.
4 Delight yourself also in the LORD: and he shall give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
6 And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.
7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not yourself in any wise to do evil.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off [karath]: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
12 The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth.
13 The LORD shall laugh at him: for he sees that his day is coming.
14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.
15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
16 A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The LORD knows the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be forever.
19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
21 The wicked borrows, and pays not again: but the righteous shows mercy, and gives.
22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off [karath].
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delights in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
26 He is ever merciful, and lends; and his seed is blessed.
27 Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
28 For the LORD loves judgment, and forsakes not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off [karath].
29 The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
30 The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgment.
31 The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
32 The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him.
33 The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt you to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off [karath], you shall see it.
35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off [karath].
39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
40 And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.

And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

The above, Matthew 27:25, is describing when Pilate was trying Jesus, and seeking to free Him, offered to release either Him or Barabbas. As we know, the people chose Barabbas, and therefore Pilate used government power to crucify and kill the LORD (as was the plan – because there can be no Glory without first suffering the cross).

The Thayer’s Greek Lexicon gives the meaning of the name Pilate as “armed with a spear.” This meaning is appropriately patterning Pilate as the final act, the spear in the LORD’s side, which brought forth the water and blood from the body of Christ. The cross itself, including the scourging and mocking, is the LORD’s long-suffering mission and ministry’s graphic pattern until them.

Barabbas, meaning “son of the father, or master [teacher],” depicts the leaders and teachers of God’s people who control doctrine and, having stolen away truth, replaced it with their creations. They blinded the world’s minds to Good (Christ) and cause them to choose instead evil (the doctrine of misleaders put in Christ’s place).

(Suffer with me while I digress: this pattern’s repetition, with distinct degrees of difference, occurs in every person the LORD chooses to, in and through, manifest His presence. The event is what all the Gospel writers (and many others not canonized) wrote of, Christ rising in them, manifesting His life and presence to those they were sent to, who through understanding, received Him at His coming.)

To these points and the LORD leading us: we know, from John 18:40, “Barabbas was a robber.” The Greek word here rendered “robber” is leistes, meaning “(to plunder); a brigand:” a band of outlaws who live by plunder (the booty of war, or anything seized wrongfully or by force).”

It (leistes) is the word used several other ways (in the Gospels) to complete the ideas it’s meant to reveal: these men’s identities.

It’s used (Matthew 12:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46) in quoting Jeremiah 7:11, as the LORD invokes the chapter, telling of His house becoming a “house of thieves.”

The next use (Matthew 26:55, Mark 14:48, and Luke 22:52) is at the LORD’s betrayal when they came to arrest Him as if just another “thief.”

It’s then used (Matthew 27:38 & 44, and Mark 15:27) to tell of the two “thieves” crucified with the LORD. This aspect speaks of some of these (thieves) repenting and joining the LORD “this day,” after the resurrection, in paradise, and of others, on the other side, choosing perdition by continuing to revile (blaspheme) Him.

Luke 23
32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death.
33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
And they divided His garments and cast lots.
35 And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”
36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine,
37 and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”
38 And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” [This is the impatience, thinking the end has come and what was promised didn’t appear. The blasphemy is accusing the LORD of lying, not understand this act was His doing what He promised, and saving Himself and those hearing Him. 1 Timothy 4:16 Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.]
40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said to Jesus, “LORD, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

The above tells of the only way to redemption: to receive the LORD, not doubt His promises, patiently take up our cross, and follow Him into His Glory in Paradise.

Another way leistes is used is by John, in John 10:1 & 8, describing ALL who have come before me.

John 10
1 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber [leistes].
2 But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
4 And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
6 This parable spoke Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spoke unto them.
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers [leistes]: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is a hireling [sa’iyr – the misleaders mixed among God’s people], 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 – plucks them away from the voice of the good shepherd] them, and scatters the sheep.
13 The hireling flees, because he is a 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 [this voice is the only voice leading to salvation].
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 do 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 [see Psalms 82:6 below]?
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 blaspheme; 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 [which is the point].
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 [of this you should fear].
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

The one other time leistes appears in the Gospels is in Luke 10:30, as Luke tells of the traveler who fell among “thieves.” He, lying in the way, as good as dead, is passed by, left dying by a priest and Levite, those who outwardly appear to be righteous. Only a Samaritan (one who was said by the self-righteous to be an idol worshiper) stopped to help him. (The Samaritans are Israel, the northern tribes intermix by the people of many other nations, who mixed their idol worship with the worship of God and called it God. The thieves who did this (which Judah repeated) were the same thieves the LORD tells us are the priests and Levites, who saw it and did nothing to restore them or Judah to good health.)

Luke 10
1 After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray you therefore the LORD of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.
3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
5 And into whatsoever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.
7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
8 And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:
9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
10 But into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleave on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be you sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.
13 Woe unto you, Chorazin [said {in Thayer’s Greek Lexicon} to mean smoke of the furnace, as in Revelation 9:2, as what darkens the sun {church} and air {exhaled teaching} – Hebrew origin seems to be the same as the name Hiram]! woe unto you, Bethsaida [the family of Sidon – those who hunt souls]! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.
15 And you, Capernaum [those living in comfort – saying peace and safety, upon whom comes sudden destruction], which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell [Gehenna – the trash heap outside Jerusalem, where the fires never stop burning, and where worms live among the ash – as if snakes in the ruin of the earth become without form and void].
16 He that hears you hears me; and he that despises you despises me; and he that despises me despises him that sent me. [1 Kings 5:7 And it came to pass, when Hiram {Chiyram} heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which has given unto David a wise son over this great people.]
17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, LORD, even the devils are subject unto us through your name.
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven [and Satan departed from them, as he did the LORD – as in Luke 4].
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank you, O Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes [who as Mary, in verse 39 below, sit at Your feet and have learned understanding]: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight.
22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see:
24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted [ekpeirazo] him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how read you?
27 And he answering said, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
28 And he said unto him, You have answered right: this do, and you shall live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho [where the wall falls, the veil of the curtain that keeps us from seeing the LORD’s presence], and fell among thieves [leistes], which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan [idol worshipper], as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you.
36 Which now of these three, think you, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do you likewise.
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village [Bethany – the family {house} of misery, that becomes the house of fruit – first-fruits]: and a certain woman named Martha [who was before a rebel] received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary [who was also before a rebel], which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word [learning as a little child and understood].
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving [her own works that have profited little], and came to him, and said, LORD, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Jeremiah 7
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
6 If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.
8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD.
12 But go you now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you.
17 See you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore you shall speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to you: you shall also call unto them; but they will not answer you.
28 But you shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, nor received correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

From the post of 1 June 2019:
Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see: for many prophets and kings have desired to see the thing which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.

Today’s opening passage is from Luke 10:23 & 24, a chapter telling of the LORD sending seventy men to preach the kingdom of God, which is at hand. The LORD sends them in His name with the Father’s word in them manifesting His presence, which is, to those who receive it as such, their entering His kingdom.

This is followed by the LORD rebuking those who’ve rejected His presence and refused to receive the Father’s word into their houses and cities. The proper names in this portion are used to refer us to 1 Kings 5:7, where we are told Hiram the king of Tyre heard the wisdom of Solomon and Blessed the LORD, who gave David a wise son over His great people. It is this context the LORD then rejoices, thanking the Father, who hid these things from those thinking they were the wise and prudent of this world, and instead, revealed them to the lowly (babes). He next says this is the son revealing the Father to those to who the Father has chosen to reveal the son. He is both speaking of His own revelation and the revelation of His presence in the seventy He has sent in His name. It is immediately after this He makes the title statement, followed by the seventy’s return and their realization that by the wisdom He has given them (in His name, manifesting His presence through them) demons are subdued.

After this declaration, comes the encounter with the lawyer, who we are told tempted Him by questioning. The deeper meaning here is found in the four times used Greek word ekpeirazo, meaning to test thoroughly, and always translated “tempt” or “tempted.” It is used in the Matthew and Luke descriptions of their temptation to doubt the LORD’s presence, as He was rising in them, after they were baptized into repentance and His death. There He brings to their minds the word of the Father, quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16, which itself refers to Exodus 17:1 thru 7, when the people doubted The LORD was speaking through Moses (from His midst), and the LORD responded by causing water to flow from the Rock (who is Christ in man manifesting the Presence of God).

In Luke’s recording this, in Luke 4, the LORD in Him writing His supernatural word, he tells us this removal of doubt is what causes Satan to depart, which is followed by quoting from Isaiah 61:1 & 2, which is an announcement of the LORD’s presence as part of his salvation plan.

Luke 4
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, You shall not tempt [ekpeirazo] the LORD your God. [Deuteronomy 6:16 You shall not tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted him in Massah. See Exodus 17:1 thru 7 and 1 Corinthians 10 below.]
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the LORD.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

The above is the coinciding context of the later passage in Luke 10, where it is explained that when we receive what is heard, as the word of God the Father, it removes our doubting His presence in us. Then others see Christ in us, the process is chain-reactively expanded and accelerated as the LORD reproduces after His own kind (and many children enter His kingdom).

[[Luke 10 above was inserted here.]]

The word ekpeirazo lastly appears in 1 Corinthians 10:9 as we are [[told]] not to doubt the LORD’s presence, after the chapter begins with saying what he is herein writing is so we wouldn’t be ignorant of this Baptism of Christ.

1 Corinthians 9
24 Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain.
25 And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate [is self-restrained] in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly [not with a doubting mind]; so fight I, not as one that beats the air [not as if I fight against those wanting to learn {inhaling} – because our fight is against those who are exhaling – teaching for their own gain, rather than for the profiting {wealth} of those hearing]:
27 But I keep under my body [I subordinate my body to self-restraint], and bring it into subjection [our motivations]: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway [found as reprobates – without this proof of Christ in us].

1 Corinthians 10
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ [the presence of God in human flesh].
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
7 Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
9 Neither let us tempt [ekpeirazo] Christ [doubt the presence of the LORD manifested in human flesh], as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
10 Neither murmur you, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
12 Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to wise men; judge you what I say.

The “prize” spoken of in 1 Corinthians 9:24 above is from the Greek word brabeion, which only appears one other time, in Philippians 3:14.

Philippians 3
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize [brabeion] of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample.
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

As we know, the first verses of Philippians 3 above are referring back to what Paul describes of the LORD prior in Philippians 2.

Philippians 2
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 worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
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.

Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6 But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.
7 For your shame [instead of your disappointment] you shall have double [blessing]; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double [blessing]: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering [the thieving preachers and false prophets hear the LORD talking to them – but have chosen darkness and mammon, even now when their evil deeds are uncovered]; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

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 prevented [went before] 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 for ever: 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 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 Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

The LORD begins today giving the meaning in the above: the sign of His presence, joining us, and the enemies are (proverbially) hanged on the gallows they built for God’s people. It reveals the word “fast” to actually tell of a face covering, like a bride’s veil, only removed when the bridegroom is present.

It also alludes to God’s people only speaking when He is present, meaning He is joined with us and we’ve become the mouth of God. Anything else, all other words, are men speaking their own ideas and ways, as false prophets claiming He’s with them when He is not.

Deuteronomy 8
1 All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers.
2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.
4 Your raiment waxed not old upon you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years [when you unlearned the ways of oppression {Egypt}, and learned the ways of peace flowing from the mouth of God {Jerusalem}].
5 You shall also consider in your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.
6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

The word “fast” is from the word nesteuo, meaning “from 3523; to abstain from food (religiously).” It’s from the word nestis (G3523), meaning “from the inseparable negative particle ne- (not) and 2068; not eating, i.e. abstinent from food (religiously).” The word (G2068) origin of the “eating” aspect is the Greek word esthio, a word appearing twice in Mark 2:16 as the religious are questioning the LORD about why He is “eating” with (speaking the word of God to) republicans and sinners. This is the backdrop to His, later in verse 19, the title verse, telling of why His children speak His (the Father’s) word only while He is with(in) them.

John 14
15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter [Parakletos], that he may abide with you forever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also.
20 At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 He that has my commandments, and keep them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas said unto him, not Iscariot, LORD, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter [Parakletos], which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, you might believe.

Mark 2
4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, your sins be forgiven you.
6 But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why does this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason you these things in your hearts?
9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Your sins be forgiven you; or to say, Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?
10 But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the sick of the palsy,)
11 I say unto you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go your way into your house.
12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
13 And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.
14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi [joined {to Him – the priesthood}] the son of Alphaeus [changing {by understanding}] sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose [anistemi – meaning awaken and rise from the dead] and followed him.
15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat [esthio] with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eats [esthio] and drinks with publicans and sinners?
17 When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
18 And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast [nesteuo]: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast [nesteuo], but your disciples fast [nesteuo] not?
19 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber fast [nesteuo], while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast [nesteuo].
20 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast [nesteuo] in those days.
21 No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
22 And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new wine [these waters newly turned wine] does burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles [the republicans and sinners].

This facet, eating the words from God’s mouth and then speaking the same word as His mouth, is seen from a different perspective in Matthew 15:32 & Mark 8:3, the only two appearances of nestis. In both, it is the LORD telling of his not sending the crowd away “fasting.”

Matthew 15
32 Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting [nestis], lest they faint in the way.
33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?
34 And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves [the bread of heaven, words, the expansion {as in the firmament} from the mouth of God] have you? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes [life below the surface of the water, that must be grasped and eaten].
35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.
36 And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them [rightly divided the waters above, the unknown manna, from the words of man], and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
37 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
38 And they that did eat [esthio] were four thousand men, beside women and children.
39 And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala [the watchtower – to see what is coming in the distance].

Matthew 16
1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came [the modern religious leaders whose word blind and deaden God’s people], and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.
2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face [presence] of the sky; but can you not discern [God’s presence] the signs of the times?
4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah [the incorrigibly religious are unable to see because of the leaven they’ve added to God’s word, which also causes them to refuse His correction]. And he left them, and departed.
5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees [the corruption they’ve added to the bread].
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves, because you have brought no bread?
9 Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
11 How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that you are John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
15 He said unto them, But whom say you that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona [the first out the belly of hell]: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock [understand Christ as the Rock flowing God’s word to those who would themselves become rocks – see Romans 8:29 below] will build my church; and the gates of hell [the oppositions of men] shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from you, LORD: this shall not be unto you.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get you behind me, Satan: you are an offense unto me: for you savor not [the words in your mouth are not the words of God, and therefore opposing Him you are speaking the words of the resister: Satan] the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself [it is Christ; God’s glory, His presence in and through me working and speaking – and the world will crucify anyone confessing this], and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
28 Truly I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Romans 8
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 [kletos] 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 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.

The word “fast” in Hebrew is the word tsuwm, meaning “to cover over (the mouth), i.e. to fast.”

The word leads us to the book of Esther, when Haman’s mouth was “covered,” meaning the words he was speaking against God’s people, who he secretly plotted to destroy, were stopped. The word “covered” is chaphah, meaning “to cover; by implication, to veil, to encase, protect.” It’s used in Esther 6:12 telling of him “covering” his head, in shame, when the end he reached wasn’t what he expected, and later in Esther 7:8 as His mouth is “covered” as his plot was exposed and the king sentenced him (the picture is kind of like the Super Bowl halftime show, and the strange dancers who not only covered their mouth but their heads also).

What set the stage for his exposure, and covering his head and mouth (ideas and words of destruction by false accusation) is recorded earlier, in Esther 4:16 where tsuwm is twice used. This is when Esther was informed by Mordecai (who is actually Daniel) of Haman’s plot, and advised her she had to tell the king. Because of the danger involved, she was reluctant and asked all God’s people to “fast,” as she and her maidens would, for three days, and neither eat nor drink. It is telling of no longer speaking their own words, and neither eating or drinking any other’s advice (other than Daniel’s). As we know, she took the advice of Mordecai, her moth was opened exposing and shutting the mouth of the destroyers, who were then sentenced by the king to be hanged on the gallows they built for Mordecai.

Esther 4
9 And Hatach [truth] came and told Esther [the star – the light in the darkness when all else is darkened] the words of Mordecai [the last who will be first].
10 Again Esther spoke unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai;
11 All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or women, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called [you are called – by the Parakletos], there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with yourself that you shall escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if you altogether hold your peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan [the last trumpet], and fast [tsuwm] you for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast [tsuwm] likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

Esther 5
1 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.
2 And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the scepter.
3 Then said the king unto her, What will you, queen Esther? and what is your request? it shall be even given you to the half of the kingdom.
4 And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, LET THE KING AND HAMAN COME [as Esther speaks these words, the words God advised through Mordecai, there is written a well know acrostic spelling the name JEHOVAH] this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.
5 Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther has said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
6 And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is your petition? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
7 Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is;
8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.
9 Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.
10 Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh [gold – who he is married to and joined with] his wife.
11 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
12 Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow am I invited unto her also with the king.
13 Yet all THIS AVAILS ME NOTHING [and other acrostic spelling JEHOVAH, in telling of His hidden plan], so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.
14 Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak you unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go you in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

The acrostics above are the second and third of four that appear in Esther giving the LORD’s name. Other than these acrostics, the LORD’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the book of Esther. The first is, in Esther 1:20, rendered, “ALL WIVES SHALL GIVE” to their husbands honor, both great and small. The fourth is in Esther 7:7 below, a chapter where, in verse 5, a fifth acrostic appears, rendered “WHO IS HE, AND WHERE IS HE,” spelling the Divine Name, I AM. Between these last two, the LORD, through Esther, says, “The adversary and the enemy is this wicked Haman.”

Esther 6
1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
2 And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.
3 And the king said, What honor and dignity has been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.
4 And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman stands in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?
7 And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor,
8 Let the royal apparel be brought which the king use to wear, and the horse that the king rides upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:
9 And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delights to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.
10 Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sits at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.
11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delights to honor.
12 And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered [chaphah].
13 And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him.
14 And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Esther 7
1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
2 And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is your petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.
3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
5 Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, WHO IS HE, AND WHERE IS HE [spelling I AM, and saying it’s the LORD’s presence exposing him this way], that does presume in his heart to do so?
6 And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
7 And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw THAT THERE WAS EVIL DETERMINED AGAINST HIM [spelling JEHOVAH and telling it is His plan] by the king.
8 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of king’s mouth, they covered [chaphah] Haman’s face.
9 And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who spoken good for the king, stand in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

Jeremiah 14
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
2 Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered [chaphah] their heads.
4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered [chaphah] their heads.
5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
8 O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turned aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.
10 Thus says the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12 When they fast [tsuwm – when they cover their mouths with masks {along with covering their heads in shame} and refuse to speak the word I put in their mouth for their good], I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
13 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart.
15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword [this word unheeded] and famine [for hearing this word of God] shall those prophets be consumed.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
17 Therefore you shall say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

Isaiah 58
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted [tsuwm], say they, and you see not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast [tsowm] you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
4 Behold, you fast [tsuwm] for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast [tsuwm] as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast [tsowm] that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast [tsowm], and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast [tsowm] that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal your bread [this word of God though you] to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light [understanding] break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your reward.
9 Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I AM. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon day:
11 And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Psalms 8
1 O LORD, our LORD, how excellent is your name in all the earth! who has set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you ordained strength because of your enemies, that you might still [shabath – interrupt and correct] the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
4 What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?
5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our LORD, how excellent is your name in all the earth!

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