⁹ Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste, while ye run every man to his own house.

⁴ Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?

⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages `to put it' into a bag with holes.

⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.

¹⁹ As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

⁴ But I have `this' against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.

³⁰ For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

³¹ But if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged.

³² But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

³⁷ He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

³⁸ And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me.

⁸ Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

⁹ Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation.

¹⁰ Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough `to receive it'.

¹¹ And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts.

² If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

¹⁶ Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty `measures', there were but ten; when one came to the winevat to draw out fifty `vessels', there were but twenty.

¹⁷ I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; yet ye `turned' not to me, saith Jehovah.

¹⁰ For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips.

¹¹ In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

⁵ I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times.

⁶ I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart; And my spirit maketh diligent search.

⁷ Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will he be favorable no more?

⁸ Is his lovingkindness clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?

⁹ Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah

¹⁰ And I said, This is my infirmity; `But I will remember' the years of the right hand of the Most High.

² I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.

⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

¹⁶ Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, By the rebuke of Jehovah, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹ And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.

¹⁰ And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore art thou thus fallen upon thy face?

¹¹ Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also; and they have even put it among their own stuff.

¹² Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed: I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you.

¹³ Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the devoted thing from among you.

¹⁴ In the morning therefore ye shall be brought near by your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which Jehovah taketh shall come near by families; and the family which Jehovah shall take shall come near by households; and the household which Jehovah shall take shall come near man by man.

¹⁵ And it shall be, that he that is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath; because he hath transgressed the covenant of Jehovah, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.