King Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the LORD?" An officer of King Joram's forces answered, "Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah's assistant."

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the LORD?"

Ahab answered, "There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad." "You shouldn't say that!" Jehoshaphat replied.

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD. He disobeyed the LORD's commands; he tried to find guidance by consulting the spirits of the dead

instead of consulting the LORD. So the LORD killed him and gave control of the kingdom to David son of Jesse.

The LORD is the friend of those who obey him and he affirms his covenant with them.

Remember the LORD in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.

King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:

"Please speak to the LORD for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the LORD will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat."

Later on King Zedekiah sent for me, and there in the palace he asked me privately, "Is there any message from the LORD?" "There is," I answered, and added, "You will be handed over to the king of Babylonia."

"Mortal man," he said, "these men have given their hearts to idols and are letting idols lead them into sin. Do they think I will give them an answer?

"Now speak to them and tell them what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying to them: Each of you Israelites who have given your heart to idols and let them lead you into sin and who then come to consult a prophet, will get an answer from me---the answer that your many idols deserve!

It was the tenth day of the fifth month of the seventh year of our exile. Some of the leaders of the Israelite community came to consult me about the LORD's will, and they sat down in front of me.

"Mortal man," he said, "speak to these leaders and tell them that the Sovereign LORD is saying: You have come to ask my will, have you? As surely as I am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken.

The Sovereign LORD never does anything without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.

Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the LORD your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation.

Be certain that you do not forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you. Obey his command not to make yourselves any kind of idol,

"Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the LORD's sight, and it will make him angry.

The LORD will scatter you among other nations, where only a few of you will survive.

The fields will be a barren waste, covered with sulfur and salt; nothing will be planted, and not even weeds will grow there. Your land will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed when he was furiously angry.

And the answer will be, 'It is because the LORD's people broke the covenant they had made with him, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of Egypt.

And so the LORD became angry with his people and brought on their land all the disasters written in this book.

When that happens, I will become angry with them; I will abandon them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible disasters will come upon them, and then they will realize that these things are happening to them because I, their God, am no longer with them.

And I will refuse to help them then, because they have done evil and worshiped other gods.

They gave an oral translation of God's Law and explained it so that the people could understand it.

When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God, so you are not to mourn or cry.

For about three hours the Law of the LORD their God was read to them, and for the next three hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the LORD their God.

But you, LORD, are feared by all. No one can stand in your presence when you are angry.

"We have sinned, we have been evil, we have done wrong. We have rejected what you commanded us to do and have turned away from what you showed us was right.

You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you.

When he is angry, who can survive? Who can survive his terrible fury? He pours out his flaming anger; rocks crumble to dust before him.

For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.

The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand up against it?"

Our ancestors were unfaithful to the LORD our God and did what was displeasing to him. They abandoned him and turned their backs on the place where he dwells.

"Go and consult the LORD for me and for the people who still remain in Israel and Judah. Find out about the teachings of this book. The LORD is angry with us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the LORD and have not done what this book says must be done."

We have sinned as our ancestors did; we have been wicked and evil.

But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

Our ancestors sinned, but now they are gone, and we are suffering for their sins.

Our kings, our rulers, and our ancestors have acted shamefully and sinned against you, Lord.

We did not listen to you, O LORD our God, when you told us to live according to the laws which you gave us through your servants the prophets.

Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.

They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.