“ Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.

“以色列是打散的羊，是被狮子赶出的。首先是亚述王将他吞灭，末后是巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒将他的骨头折断。”

以色列是打散的羊，被狮子赶散。首先是亚述王将他吞灭，末后是巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒折断他的骨头。

以色列是打散的羊，被狮子赶散。首先是亚述王将他吞灭，末后是巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒折断他的骨头。

“以色列人是一群被狮子驱散的羊，先被亚述王吞噬，后被巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒咬碎骨头。”

以色列是被赶散的羊，它被狮子赶逐。先是亚述王把它吞灭，现在巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒要咬碎它的骨头。

「以色列是打散的羊，是被獅子趕出的。首先是亞述王將他吞滅，末後是巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒將他的骨頭折斷。」

以色列是打散的羊，被獅子趕散。首先是亞述王將他吞滅，末後是巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒折斷他的骨頭。

以色列是打散的羊，被獅子趕散。首先是亞述王將他吞滅，末後是巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒折斷他的骨頭。

「以色列人是一群被獅子驅散的羊，先被亞述王吞噬，後被巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒咬碎骨頭。」

以色列是被趕散的羊，它被獅子趕逐。先是亞述王把它吞滅，現在巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒要咬碎它的骨頭。

『以色列是被打散的羊，有獅子把他趕逐了：首先是亞述王將他吞滅，末後是他的骨頭被巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒啃斷了。

以色列乃離散之羊、為獅所逐、始則亞述王吞噬之、終則巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒折其骨、

以色列族若亡羊、為獅所驅、初為亞述王吞噬、後為巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒折骨。

以色列族、若亡羊為獅所驅、初、亞述王食其肉、後、巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒折其骨、

“ Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria; the last to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

“ Israel is like a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first lion that ate them up was the king of Assyria. The last one that broke their bones was Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.”

“ The Israelites are like sheep that have been scattered by lions. First the king of Assyria ate them up. Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cracked their bones.”

Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

“ Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has gnawed his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

“ Israel is like scattered sheep; The lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him; Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last one who crushed his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

Israel[ is] a scattered sheep; the lions have driven[ him] away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

“ The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones.

“ Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it,and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,

“ My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.

“ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people:“ You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it.In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sar-ezer of Samgar, Nebu-sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah.But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him.The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon.The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;

Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.

The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem.Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him to Egypt.Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon.Nebuchadnezzar also carried part of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon.Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord.He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel.All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand.And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels.He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:“ Thus says Cyrus king of Persia,‘ The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”

In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets.Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reignand carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold.He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land.And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it.So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

“ They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions’ cubs.

So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered;They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.

So Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.

The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah— the king of Assyria!”In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River— with the king of Assyria— the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.And the Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say to Hezekiah,‘ Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.But if you say to me,“ We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem,“ You shall worship before this altar”?Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me,“ Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh,“ Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”But the Rabshakeh said,“ Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah:“ Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!Thus says the king:‘ Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying,“ The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying,“ The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was,“ Do not answer him.”Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem,he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him.A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying,“ Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?”He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance.And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,“ Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was besieging Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,“ Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria,‘ On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem?Is not Hezekiah misleading you, that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you,“ The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”?Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem,“ Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices”?Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand?Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand?Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!’”And his servants said still more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.And he wrote letters to cast contempt on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying,“ Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.”And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city.And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven.And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side.And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

“ What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them,‘ Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

Behold, like a lion coming up from the jungle of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make him run away from her. And I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me?

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other godsand walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger,and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them,“ You shall not do this.”Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying,“ Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin.The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them,until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions— they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.Then he said to his disciples,“ The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

“ Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed me out.The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,” let the inhabitant of Zion say.“ My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” let Jerusalem say.

In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.

I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.