It Was A Riddle Not A Command

You Can Learn the Secret Meaning of:

No One Knows the Day of the Hour

 Why does no One Know When Jesus was born?

When Does the Thief in the Night Come?

Why Are the Foolish Virgins Rejected?

No One Knows The Day or The Hour is a Hebrew idiom or parable.

Jesus spoke in parables to conceal His message which He later explained to the Apostles.

No One Knows The Day or the Hour is telling you the very day He will come back on! 

The exact opposite to what you thought it said!

This is the very same day when He first came.

The Book of Revelation Tells you the very day and hour He was born.

You are given clues in Revelation about the thief that comes in the night, about being caught naked and ashamed. All of these clues tell you about the very day He is coming back.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians telling them they had no need to write them about the Day of the Lord

FOR THEY KNEW FULL WELL THE MOEDIM!!!

Knowing the Moedim shows you the Day and Hour No Man Can Know.

We are also told about the Two Witnesses in the Book of Revelation…
What revelations do the Two Witnesses show you about the birth of Jesus?

There was a heavenly Host praising God when Jesus was born.
This, too, tells you the Day He was born.

Are you aware that the 5 Foolish Virgins did not understand what the Thief in the Night was?
Do You?

All these questions and so much more are explained in detail.
It was a Riddle for us to figure out.
It was not a command that we could not know.
We can KNOW.
YOU Can Know!

Thoroughly researched and profoundly significant!

5.0 out of 5 stars

There just isn’t a better book on Christian prophecy than this! What an eye opener!

Of the many books and articles that I have read on prophecy in my personal search for truth, this is the only one that does not rely on old ideas that were developed hundreds of years ago when knowledge was minimal. So much more has been learned through historical and archeological research. The world has changed so much that before now no one could have clearly envisioned how prophecy might play out.

I think the average Christian doesn’t realize that recent developments in technology and huge increases in knowledge offer us a unique opportunity to raise the veil so that we might see clearly what was once hidden behind a dark glass.

After learning about these things and seriously considering the Bible, with a willingness to set aside my traditional beliefs about prophecy, I have come to the conclusion that this book is inspired by God. Mr. Dumond presents compelling information that overturns long held assumptions and unverified beliefs making the entire body of prophetic knowledge fully accessible. As a matter of fact I think that just about anyone with no previous knowledge of the Bible would understand things that scholars have devoted their lives to explaining.

I would like everyone to know what is being shown in the pages of this book. No serious truth seeker should pass up the opportunity to have their eyes opened through its revelations. I believe it is the most important book ever written,- next to the Bible itself.

Thank you Joseph Dumond.

Amazon Customer: Ross Boraan

Order your copy Today!

Join Our Sabbath Meetings

There are many people in need of fellowship and who are sitting at home on the Sabbath with no one to talk to or debate with. I want to encourage all of you to join us on Shabbat, and to invite others to come and join us as well. If the time is not convenient then you can listen to the teaching and the midrash after on our YouTube channel.

What are we doing and why do we teach this way?

We are going to discuss both sides of an issue and then let you choose. It is the work of the Ruach (Spirit) to direct and to teach you.

The medieval commentator Rashi wrote that the Hebrew word for wrestle (avek) implies that Jacob was “tied”, for the same word is used to describe knotted fringes in a Jewish prayer shawl, the tzitzityot. Rashi says, “thus is the manner of two people who struggle to overthrow each other, that one embraces the other and knots him with his arms”.

Our intellectual wrestling has been replaced by a different kind of struggle. We are wrestling with Yehovah as we grapple with His Word. It is an intimate act, symbolizing a relationship in which Yehovah and you and I are bound together. My wrestling is a struggle to discover what Yehovah expects of us, and we are “tied” to the One who assists us in that struggle.

Today, many say Israel means “Champion of God”, or better — the “Wrestler of God”.

Our Torah sessions each Shabbat teaches you and encourages you to constantly challenge, question, argue against, as well as view alternative views and explanations of the Word. In other words, we are to “wrestle with the Word” to get to the truth. Jews worldwide believe that you need to wrestle with the Word and constantly challenge Dogma, Theology, and views or else you will never get to the Truth.

We are not like most churches where “The preacher talks and everyone listens.” We encourage everyone to participate, to question and to contribute what they know on the subject being discussed. We want you to be a champion wrestler of the Word of Yehovah. We want you to wear the title of Israel, knowing that you not only know but are capable of explaining why you know the Torah to be true with logic and facts.

We have a few rules though. Let others talk and listen. There is no discussion about UFO’s, Nephilim, Vaccines or conspiracy-type subjects. We have people from around the world with different world views. Not everyone cares who is the President of any particular country. Treat each other with respect as fellow wrestlers of the word. Some of our subjects are hard to understand and require you to be mature and if you do not know, then listen to gain knowledge and understanding and hopefully wisdom. The very things you are commanded to ask Yehovah for and He gives to those who ask.

Jas 1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

We hope you can invite those who want to keep Torah to come and join us by hitting the link below. It is almost like a Torah teaching fellowship talk show with people from around the world taking part and sharing their insights and understandings.

We start off with some music and then some prayers and it’s as though you were sitting around the kitchen back in Newfoundland having a cup of coffee and all of us enjoying each other’s company. I hope you will grace us with your company someday.

Sabbath services begin at 12:30 PM EDT where we will be doing prayers, songs and teaching from this hour.

Shabbat midrash will begin at about 1:15 pm Eastern.

We look forward to you joining our family and getting to know us as we get to know you.

Joseph Dumond is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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The Mystery of the Jewish Rapture 2033

No beating around the bush.

Everyone Knows We are Close to the End.

We can Prove it with the Jubilee Cycles.

It is Time Now to Learn.

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The Stones Cry Out Part 1 & Part 2

Do you want to know how to prove the Zadok Calendar, the Enoch Calendar, and the Book of Jubilee Calendar false?

Do you want to know how the calendar issue became so confusing?

I go this awesome endorsement and I want to share it here now. with you.

In The Stones Cry Out, I walk you through the history of each change and why those changes came about, starting with the Maccabean days. Yes, it all began around 164 B.C. When Yehshua was here, he was dealing with two schools of thought. The Sadducees were all but wiped out when the Temple fell in 70 C.E. This left only the Pharisees, who began to be persecuted after the failure of the Bar Kochbah Revolt in 134 C.E.

The truth began to become out of focus around 160 C.E. when Rabbi Jose wrote the Seder Olam. This work originally was written to proof Simon Bar Kochbah was the Messiah. When that did not pan out the history was later revived and then redacted as the truth into the Mishneh Torah by Rabbi Judah ha Nasi in 180 C.E. After this the Jerusalem Talmud begins to debate these issues. It was then during this time as the Jerusalem Talmudist are forced to flee and the Babylonian Talmudist continue to grow until the 6th century that Hillel came up with a solution to help them keep the Holy Days at the proper time while they were out of the land of Israel. He did this in 358 C.E. This work was then modified and adjusted over the next 800 years with additions added and other rejected. Until it was finally redacted once again in 1177 by Rambam. And with that we now have the modern Hillel calendar which includes the errors passed on during each redaction. These errors included the time of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years.

Once the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., the Jews recorded time by counting from the time It was destroyed. This is why the 40 tombstones of Zoar, which record this information, are crucial to understand.

When you understand why the Postponement rules were first created so that the crescent moon would not be seen in another part of the world before it was seen in Israel then you can understand how they were still trying to follow the crescent moon to begin the month. The Tombstones show us this exact thing. The tombstones also show us when the Jews changed from a crescent moon to a Conjunction moon to begin the month. They also show us when the Jews changed the year from the month of Aviv to the Tishri to begin the year.

I really want you to understand these things so you know why you do what you do as far as following a calendar to keep Yehovah’s moedim.
Get your Free copies of The Stones Cry Out Part 1 and Part 2 here https://sightedmoon.com/the-stones-cry-out-lp/

And share this information with your FB friends and Bibles Study groups. If they don’t like it, it never cost them anything.

Get your copy today. If you want a paperback copy, I have them on Amazon for the least amount they would let me post them there. Order both of them and start to understand the history of how these changes affect those who follow Yehovah and keep His Feasts.

I would like to add this recent comment to encourage you all to get this book and learn these truths. And the Book is FREE. You have no reason not to get it.

Most people assume that Hillel created the calendar in 358 C.E. They then assume that because it was a Sanhedrin, they are not allowed to change in order to obey Yehovah. The Hillel calendar has been changed many times since 358 C.E. up until 1177 C.E. Few people talk about these changes but we do in our latest Book The Stones Cry Out Part 1 which is free on our website. The Hillel calendar was changed on many occasions and many sought to make other changes during this time. They never needed a Bet Din to approve those changes. They just did them. So this excuse that we do not have the right to obey Yehovah because the Bet Din has not approved it is a crock of crap.
You have the obligation to obey Yehovah. You have the duty to prove which calendar you are to go by. You must prove it beyond all doubt. Yehshua never followed the Hillel calendar. Nor did any of the Apostles.
The reason no man can know the day or the hour is because it refers to a crescent moon to begin the 7th month. That is the day He was born on and the day He comes to judge on. At a day and hour no one can know. Using the Hillel calendar predicts Yom Teruah years in advance so every one knows when to keep it. But even in the Hillel calendar they keep two days of Yom Teruah reckoning back to the sighted moon. Also in the postponement rules developed long after Hillel, they again state that if the conjunction is at a certain time then the day begins at such and such, in order that the moon will not be seen in another part of the world before it is seen in Israel. That was rule number 2.
Everyone has to choose. You have the right to be wrong. But if you choose to be wrong then you also must live with the consequences that come with sin. And that is the death penalty for not keeping the Holy Days, these Sabbath at the proper time. It is your choice.
Just because you write in to me to justify your position does mean it is right. It just means your sounding off.

Allow me to share this endorsement of our latest book again. If you have read our books, please share your thoughts about them with us in the comments below or email me.

And yes, many observe the Equinox.  There are many who are deceived, improperly educated.  And this is why Joe puts out a newsletter every week, why he writes books, why the SightedMoon Zoom Shabbat service started, why he travels to places like England and the Philippines to share this message and why were are going to the NRB in February.  The calendar is always a divisive issue in social circles because the details are many, that’s why there are so many books Joe has written.  I’m not looking to put Joe on a pedestal here.  This is not about Joe worship.  But Joe has tenaciously studied out the calendar from every angle, not to prove himself right, to to seek to find and share what Yehovah is telling us about His Calendar.

In The Stones Cry Out, Joe has shared the history of all the different groups within Israel, and the beliefs they had about the scriptures and the feast days and the calendar.  When you line it all up, you can see for yourself the how and why these misunderstandings and arguments about how and where and why  they came about.

This is my new favourite book and I’m only 60-70 pages in.  And I encourage you to read the footnotes in this one.  Sometimes there’s more footnote on the page than Joe’s words.

Sombra Wilson

When I wrote Stones Cry Out, I wanted it to be one of our FREE books so everyone would have it. It is more of an encyclopedia than a book to read. It will be your quick resource book; you will have access to every question about any calendar, how it got started, and who started it. You will also learn the history of how the Mishnah was assembled, when it was assembled and why. Then, you will learn how that information was transferred into both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud until it reached its final stage in the Mishneh Torah. Along with this progression, the calendar also progressed and changed long after 358 C.E. when Rabbi Hillel first published it. But…what was before the Hillel calendar? What does the Mishnah record about those things?

The Stones Cry Out was originally going to be one book explaining all the various proofs we have discovered, demonstrating when the Sabbatical and Jubilee years are throughout history.

You can know; it is not a mystery.

As I began to write The Stones Cry Out, I quickly found myself going back, time and time again, to explain how the calendar is behind the confusion of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. The Rabbis, as they began to write the Mishnah, incorporated wrong understandings, and those errors were written into what became known as the Talmud and then the Mishneh Torah. The expulsion from the land and subsequent persecutions in trying to send out messengers to report the barley being found or the crescent moon being seen, proved to be more and more dangerous over time. All of these things took place over 14 centuries.

Then as I was working on The Stones Cry Out, I discovered that many people were now accepting the Zadok calendar as factual. This is when we pivoted to include all the details of the various calendars that have crept back into public knowledge today and are being used to mislead new people who are just starting to learn about the calendar. All of this was directly connected to the period starting with the Hasmonaeans, up to the destruction of the Temple. Then, with the compiling of the Mishnah, the studies that led into the writing of the Jerusalem Talmud, then the Babylonian Talmud and finally the Mishneh Torah, each error that was added is compounded over time.

The Stones Cry Out, Part 1 explains the history of how each compilation of the Oral Torah incorporated errors, leading the followers thereof away from the actual Torah. In understanding these facts, it is then possible to understand more readily how the Sabbatical and Jubilee years were then mixed and later changed. By explaining all this history, I will be able to help you the reader understand the tombstones when most authorities do not. They have assumed, to their error, the Hillel calendar to have always been in use since Mount Sinai. Not understanding the history of the calendars is why most authorities dismiss the tombstones as too confusing to use. Once you understand The Stones Cry Out Part 1, Part 2 will be very easy to grasp.

Daniel 7:25 tells us he will change the appointed seasons and commandments. Many assume Constantine did this when he made Sunday the Sabbath. Few have considered the calendar’s many changes and how they relate to us today. Hidden in this proverbial swamp of confusion is the truth about the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years reveal the truths about the calendar that have been hidden for almost 2000 years.

We are in the very last days and Yehshua warned us that during this time:

Mat 24:10 And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets will rise and deceive many.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold.

Mat 24:13 But he who endures to the end, the same shall be kept safe.

Paul also warned Timothy about these last days, warning that some would leave the truth and begin to follow demonic teachers:

1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons,

Paul again warned the Thessalonians that the Great Falling away would take place in the last days. How can you fall away if you have never come to know the truth? So who is Paul talking to? Those who are called and answer that calling begin to walk this road of restoration back to Yehovah, and then at some point along that walk, they change and leave this walk following the teachings of demons to false calendar.

2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, my brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,

2Th 2:2 that you should not be soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word or letter, as through us, as if the Day of Christ is at hand.

2Th 2:3 Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition,

2Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.

We must endure until the end. We must not let ourselves become offended by personalities and leave the faith once given.

I want you all to have access to and the ability to read this book and use it as a reference. https://sightedmoon.com/the-stones-cry-out-lp/ Click on the link fill in the form and you will have access to the FREE PDF anywhere in the world. If you want a copy you can hold in your hands we have published it at Amazon for the lowest price they would allow us. Order you copy after Shabbat and begin to read it today.

Lamentations & the 9th of Av

Let me share with you a little bit about a certain prophet named, Zechariah.

He was the Grandson of the priest Iddo,

Zec 1:1  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

This was October–November 520 BC. Then again in the same year in the 11th month, Zechariah has this other prophetic vision.

Zec 1:7  On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, it is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

Zec 1:8  I watched by night. And behold! a Man riding on a red horse, and He stood among the myrtle trees in the ravine. And behind Him were red, sorrel and white horses.

Zec 1:9  Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who talked with me said to me, I will show you what these are.

Zec 1:10  And the Man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are those whom Jehovah has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

Zec 1:11  And they answered the Angel of Jehovah who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sits still and is at peace.

Zec 1:12  Then the Angel of Jehovah answered and said, O Jehovah of Hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which You have cursed these seventy years?

This is now 18 years after Babylon fell to Cyrus in 538 BC ending the 70-year captivity.

In Ezra, we read of the return from Babylon.

Ezr 2:1  And these are the sons of the province who went up out of the captivity, of those who had been exiled, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled to Babylon. And these came again to Jerusalem and Judah, each one to his city.

Ezr 2:2  These are the ones who came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. This is the number of the men of the people of the sons of Israel:

We read how Iddo, Zechariah’s grandfather was amongst those who first came back from the 70 years of captivity according to Nehemiah.

Neh 12:1  And these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

Neh 12:2  Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

Neh 12:3  Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

Neh 12:4  Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah,

Neh 12:5  Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

Neh 12:6  Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

Neh 12:7  Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chief of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

Neh 12:12  And in the days of Joiakim were priests, the chief of the fathers: from the house of Seraiah was Meraiah; from Jeremiah, Hananiah;

Neh 12:13  from Ezra, Meshullam; from Amariah, Jehohanan;

Neh 12:14  from Melicu, Jonathan; from Shebaniah, Joseph;

Neh 12:15  from Harim, Adna; from Meraioth, Helkai;

Neh 12:16  from Iddo, Zechariah; from Ginnethon, Meshullam;

Neh 12:17  from Abijah, Zichri; from Miniamin of Moadiah, Piltai;

Neh 12:18  from Bilgah, Shammua; from Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

Neh 12:19  and from Joiarib, Mattenai; from Jedaiah, Uzzi;

Neh 12:20  from Sallai, Kallai; from Amok, Eber;

Neh 12:21  from Hilkiah, Hashabiah; from Jedaiah, Nethaneel.

Zerubbabel’s aliyah took place in 538 BC

The second wave of aliyah, known as Zerubbabel’s Aliyah, was led by Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the grandson of Jeconiah, king of Judah, and a descendant of the house of David as well as Joshua the son of Jehozadak who was appointed as high priest (Kohen Gadol), in 538 BCE.

According to the account in the Book of Ezra, 42,360, not including servants or handmaids, made aliyah in this wave to Jerusalem and Judah. Among them, there were 24,144 ordinary men (57.12%) and 12,452 women and children (29.46%). There were also 4,289 priests (10.15%), 74 generic Levites (0.18%), 128 Singers (0.3%), 139 Gatekeepers (0.33%) (Singers and gatekeepers were specific roles of Levites in the holy temple in Jerusalem that had been passed from one generation to another), 392 Nethinim (0.93%), and 652 people who could not tell their fathers’ houses and their ancestry (1.54%). 90 other people (0.21%) appear to have joined in, to complete that count of 42,360. In addition 7,337 servants and handmaids joined in, boosting the population to 49,697. They also brought up their working animals: 736 horses (one for about every 68 people), 246 mules (one for every 202 people), 435 camels (one per 114 people), and 6,720 donkeys (one for every 7 people).[8] A smaller portion of this wave of aliyah was well-born, possibly one-sixth of the returnees, whereas the rest were of a lower class and poor. The returnees in this aliyah were of the Tribe of Judah, Tribe of Levi and the Tribe of Benjamin, and settled in their cities and places from before the destruction of the first temple, Solomon’s Temple, as many of them kept scribed documents indicating their land tenure status of land ownership in various places.

Due to the return of many single men, and the lack of Jewish single women, a phenomenon of mixed marriages with alien women developed. This wave of aliyahhad been on good terms with the Persian government, which allowed them religious autonomy. However, the economic situation was not well – there was a lack of infrastructures due to the consecutive ruins in the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple, taxes and many housing needs, as well as consecutive years of harsh drought and other natural disasters that hit the land of Israel. At those times the Jews reinstituted the sacrificial offerings to God with the re-establishment of the altar in 538 BCE (כ”ה בכסלו, שנת ג’רכ”ב). This event was prior to the reconstruction of the newly emerging temple in Jerusalem, which restored the status of Jerusalem as the heart and soul of the Jewish people. The Samaritans made proposals for co-operation in the work, but their proposals were declined. Consequently the Jews suffered some harassment at the hands of the Samaritans. Despite the disruptions and delays the returnees managed to complete the construction of the holy temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE.

The First Aliyah

Sheshbazzar’s aliyah (those claiming that Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar were the same person, associate Sheshbazzar’s aliyah with Zerubbabel’s Aliyah), had occurred near after Cyrus’s Decree, in 538 BCE. Approximately 1,000 young Jews made aliya in what became known as Sheshbazzar’s Aliyah, out of the notion to redeem the land of Israel from its ruins and to re-establish the holy temple on the Temple Mount. This aliyah was named after its leader Sheshbazzar because most scholars have agreed that he is a descendant of the house of Jeconiah, king of Judah.

The Book of Ezra depicts Sheshbazzar’s Aliyah as a consent and encouragement of the Persian King Cyrus:

7 And King Cyrus took out all the vessels of the House of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of Jerusalem and had placed them in the temple of his god;
8 Now Cyrus, the king of Persia, took them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah…
11 All the vessels of silver and gold were five thousand, four hundred; Sheshbazzar brought up [ He’ela / Aliyah ] everything when the exiles were brought up [ He’alot / Aliyah ] from Babylon to Jerusalem.

— Book of Ezra 1:7–8,11

Third Aliyah

The third aliyah was led by Ezra the scribe, in 458 BCE. Around 5,000 Jews were in this wave of returnees.

Nehemiah’s Aliyah

The fourth aliyah was led by Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah, in 445 BCE. Prior to that, he served as the royal cupbearer to the king of Persia and as Man of the Great Assembly. It is not clear how many returnees joined him, but the Book of Nehemiah depicts a strong army escort supplied by the king.

The time for these 4 aliyot takes place over a 93-year period of time.

Zechariah’s grandfather returned from Babylon, in Zerubbabel’s Aliyah in the year 538 BC. This was the year after the 70 years of captivity had ended. Zerubbebal would have been a young grandson of Iddo in this aliyah

Just imagine how exciting this would have been for them. This is going to be the story of some of you after 70 Jubilee Cycles have ended you will be in Jerusalem for the 7th Millennium of Rest. Think about you and your children and grandchildren making this Aliyah.

Zechariah’s name means Yehovah Remembers. Zechariah’s name was appropriate to the purpose of his prophecies. His book brims over with the hope that Yehovah would remember His promises to His people, even after all the time they spent outside the land. The prophet used a simple structure of eight visions (Zechariah 1:1–6:15), four messages (7:1–8:23), and two oracles (9:1–14:21) to anticipate the completion of the temple and, ultimately, the future reign of the Messiah from Jerusalem. Like many of the prophets, Zechariah saw isolated snapshots of the future; therefore, certain events that seem to occur one right after the other in Zechariah’s prophecy actually often have generations or even millennia between them.

The book of Zechariah contains the clearest and the largest number of messianic (about the Messiah) passages among the Minor Prophets. In that respect, it’s possible to think of the book of Zechariah as a kind of miniature book of Isaiah. Zechariah pictures Christ in both His first coming (Zechariah 9:9) and His second coming (9:10–10:12). Jesus will come, according to Zechariah, as Savior, Judge, and ultimately, as the righteous King ruling His people from Jerusalem (14:8–9).

Let’s now read about the joyful coming of our King according to Zechariah.

Zec 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your King comes to you. He is righteous and victorious, meek and riding on an ass, even on a colt, the son of an ass.

Zec 9:10  And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace to the nations; and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Zec 9:11  You also, by the blood of Your covenant I have freed Your prisoners out of the pit in which is no water.

Zec 9:12  Turn to the stronghold, prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will return to you double.

Zec 9:13  For I have bent Judah for me as a bow; I filled it with Ephraim, and I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you as the sword of a mighty man.

The Lord Will Save His People

Zec 9:14  And Jehovah shall be seen over them, and His arrow shall go forth like the lightning; and the Lord Jehovah shall blow the ram’s horn, and shall go out with the windstorms of the south.

Zec 9:15  Jehovah of Hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour and trample the slingstones. And they shall drink and be boisterous, as through wine. And they shall be filled like a bowl, and like the corners of the altar.

Zec 9:16  And Jehovah their God shall save them in that day as the flock of His people; for they are as stones of a crown, lifted up as a banner over His land.

Zec 9:17  For how great is its goodness and how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.

Zec 10:1  Ask rain from Jehovah in the time of the latter rain. Jehovah shall make storm clouds, and He gives them showers of rain, grass to everyone in the field.

Zec 10:2  For the family idols speak iniquity, and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain; therefore they wandered like a flock; they were troubled because there was no shepherd.

Zec 10:3  My anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats; for Jehovah of Hosts has visited His flock the house of Judah, and has made them as His beautiful horse in battle.

Zec 10:4  Out of Him came the cornerstone; out of Him the nail; out of Him the battle bow; out of Him every oppressor together.

Zec 10:5  And they shall be like mighty ones who trample the mud of the streets in the battle. And they shall fight because Jehovah is with them, and they shall make the riders on horses ashamed.

Zec 10:6  And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will return to save them; for I have pity on them. And they shall be as though I had not cast them off; for I am Jehovah their God, and I will answer them.

Zec 10:7  And Ephraim shall be like a mighty one, and their heart shall rejoice as by wine. And their sons shall see and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in Jehovah.

Zec 10:8  I will hiss for them and gather them; for I have redeemed them. And they shall be many as they were many.

Zec 10:9  And I will sow them among the peoples, and they shall remember Me in the distances; and they shall live with their sons and return.

Zec 10:10  I will return them out of the land of Egypt, and I will gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; for room shall not be found for them.

Zec 10:11  And he shall pass through the sea of distress, and shall strike the waves in the sea; and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up. And the pride of Assyria shall be humbled, and the scepter of Egypt shall move away.

Zec 10:12  And I will strengthen them in Jehovah; and they shall walk up and down in His name, says Jehovah.

For those of you who do not know or realize, these scriptures you just read are almost the same as we read in Isaiah.

Isa 11:11  And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall again set His hand, the second time, to recover the remnant of His people that remains, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Persia, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea.

I share all of this in order to now share the following.

Zec 7:1  And it happened in the fourth year of King Darius, the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev.

He was given this prophecy on December 7, 518 BC.

Zec 8:19  So says Jehovah of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah for joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.

The fast of the 4th month is 17 of Tammuz.

The fast of Tammuz, according to Rabbi Akiva’s interpretation, is the fast mentioned in the Book of Zechariah as “the fast of the fourth [month]” (Zechariah 8:19). This refers to Tammuz, which is the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar.

According to the Mishnah,[2] five calamities befell the Jewish people on this day:

Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai;[5]
The daily tamid offering ceased to be brought;
During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the city walls were breached, leading to the destruction of the Second Temple on Tisha B’Av;
Prior to Bar Kokhba’s revolt, Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll;
An idol was erected in the Temple.
The Babylonian Talmud places the second and fifth tragedies in the First Temple period.[6]

The Book of Jeremiah (39.2, 52.6–7) states that the walls of Jerusalem during the First Temple were breached on the 9th of Tammuz. Accordingly, the Babylonian Talmud dates the third tragedy (breach of Jerusalem’s walls) to the Second Temple period.[6] However, the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit IV, 5) states that in both eras the walls were breached on 17th Tammuz, and that the text in Jeremiah 39 is explained by stating that the Biblical record was “distorted”, apparently due to the troubled times.[7]

The Seventeenth of Tammuz occurs forty days after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Moses ascended Mount Sinai on Shavuot and remained there for forty days. The Children of Israel made the Golden Calf on the afternoon of the sixteenth of Tammuz when it seemed that Moses was not coming down when promised. Moses descended the next day (forty days by his count), saw that the Israelites were violating many of the laws he had received from God, and smashed the tablets.[8]

We just counted the days from when Moses went up the Mountain. He came down on the 23rd day of the month according to our understanding. As you read this remember when Zechariah is writing this. Almost 600 years before the second Temple is destroyed.

The fast of the 5th month is 9 Av.

Five calamities

According to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6), five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting:

The Twelve Spies sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan returned from their mission. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, brought a positive report, while the others spoke disparagingly about the land. The majority report caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair of ever entering the “Promised Land”. For this, they were punished by God that their generation would not enter the land.[4] The midrash quotes God as saying about this event, “You cried before me pointlessly, I will fix for you [this day as a day of] crying for the generations”,[5]alluding to the future misfortunes which occurred on the same date.
The First Temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, and the population of the Kingdom of Judah was sent into the Babylonian exile.[6] According to the Bible, the First Temple’s destruction began on the 7th of Av (2 Kings 25:8) and continued until the 10th (Jeremiah 52:12). According to the Talmud,[7] the actual destruction of the Temple began on the Ninth of Av, and it continued to burn throughout the Tenth of Av.
The Second Temple built by Ezra and Nehemiah was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE,[8] scattering the people of Judea and commencing the Jewish exile from the Holy Land.[6]
The Romans subsequently crushed Bar Kokhba’s revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 500,000 Jewish civilians (approximately 580,000) on August 4, 135 CE.[9]
Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman commander Quintus Tineius Rufus plowed the site of the Temple in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, in 135 CE.[10]
Other calamities[edit]
Over time, Tisha B’Av has come to be a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for later tragedies which occurred on or near the 9th of Av. References to some of these events appear in liturgy composed for Tisha B’Av (see below).

The First Crusade officially commenced on August 15, 1096 (Av 24, AM 4856), killing 10,000 Jews in its first month and destroying Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland.[9][11]
The Jews were expelled from England on July 18, 1290 (Av 9, AM 5050).[9]
The Jews were expelled from France on July 22, 1306 (Av 10, AM 5066).[12]
The Jews were expelled from Spain on July 31, 1492 (Av 7, AM 5252).[10]
Germany entered World War I on August 1–2, 1914 (Av 9–10, AM 5674), which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to the Holocaust.[9]
On August 2, 1941 (Av 9, AM 5701), SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval from the Nazi Party for “The Final Solution.” As a result, the Holocaust began during which almost one third of the world’s Jewish population perished.[13]
On July 23, 1942 (Av 9, AM 5702), began the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.[13]
The AMIA bombing, of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killed 85 and injured 300 on July 18, 1994 (10 Av, AM 5754).[14]
The 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza.[15][16]
While the Holocaust spanned a number of years, most religious communities use Tisha B’Av to mourn its 6,000,000 Jewish victims, in addition to or instead of the secular Holocaust Memorial Days. On Tisha B’Av, communities which otherwise do not modify the traditional prayer liturgy have added the recitation of special kinnot related to the Holocaust.

The fast of the 7th month

is Tzom Gedalia (usually observed on 3 Tishrei) although Yom Kippur also falls in the 7th month.

When Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, conquered Jerusalem, he killed or exiled most of its inhabitants and appointed Gedaliah[2] as governor of the now-Babylonian of province of Yehud.

However, Baalis, king of Ammon, was hostile and envious of the Judean remnant and sent a Judean, Yishmael Ben Netaniah, who was descended from the royal family of Judea, to assassinate Gedaliah. In the seventh month (Tishrei) of 582/1 BCE (some four to five years following the destruction of the Temple, although the exact year is unclear and subject to dispute; others claim the assassination took place in the same year as the destruction), a group of Jews led by Yishmael came to Gedaliah in the town of Mitzpa and were received cordially. Gedaliah had been warned of his guest’s murderous intent, but refused to believe his informants, believing their report was mere slander. Yishmael murdered Gedaliah, together with most of the Jews who had joined him and many Babylonians whom the Babylonian king had left with Gedaliah. The remaining Jews feared the vengeance of the Babylonian king (in view of the fact that the king’s chosen ruler, Gedaliah, had been killed by a Jew) and fled to Egypt.[3]

The events are recounted briefly in the Hebrew Bible in 2 Kings 25:25–26:

But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mitzpah. And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
A fuller account is in Jeremiah chapter 41,[4] where the murder of a group of envoys and the kidnapping of the gubernatorial staff and family are also related:

In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and ten men with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam son Shaphan with the sword and killed him, because the king of Babylon had appointed him governor in the land. Ishmael also killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.[5]

This fast of the 7th month that they claim is because of the assassination of Gedalia, strikes me as being very weak.

There is the Day of Atonement which is a very specific fast day and I would contend it is the Day of Atonement that Zechariah is speaking about which will be turned into the day of Rejoicing in the 7th Millennium. Consider the events of this day and what it is about. Once they are completed in 2033 Satan will be locked away and Peace will then be on this earth.

The fast of the 10th month is the 10th of Tevet.

The fasting is in mourning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia—an event that began on that date and ultimately culminated in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (the First Temple), downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, and the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people.

According to II Kings,[2] on the 10th day of the 10th month (Tevet),[note 2] in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign (588 BCE), Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, began the siege of Jerusalem. Eighteen months later, on the 9th of Tammuz at the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign[note 3] (586 BCE), he broke through the city walls, later the Romans would similarly break through the walls of Jerusalem on the 17th of Tammuz.[3] The siege ended with the destruction of the Temple three weeks later, on the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), the end of the first Kingdoms and the elite of Judah taken in exile to Babylon. The tenth of Tevet is part of the cycle of three fasts connected with these events.[4]

These fasts commemorate events leading up to the destruction of both the First Temple and the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Zechariah is saying that when the Temple is rebuilt, these days of mourning will become days of celebration.

But today, in 2025, we are still going to read Lamentations which Jeremiah wrote after the destruction of the First Temple. It is not a commanded fast in Leviticus 23. You are free to choose what you want to do. Zechariah prophesied about this day and how it would be a day of rejoicing.

It is my opinion that to understand how great that rejoicing will be we must understand how sad this day is. Marking this day by fasting then also helps us to watch for the event that will be extremely joyful to happen on this day yet in the future. Near Future.

How Lonely Sits the City

Lam 1:1  How alone sits the city that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations, a noblewoman among the nations, but now has become a tribute-payer.

Lam 1:2  She bitterly weeps in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt deceitfully with her; they became her enemies.

Lam 1:3  Judah went into captivity because of affliction, and from great slavery. She dwells among the nations; she finds no rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her between the narrows.

Lam 1:4  The roads of Zion mourn without any going to the appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Lam 1:5  Her enemies have become as chief; her haters are at ease; for Jehovah has afflicted her for the multitude of her sins. Her children have gone, captive before the enemy.

Lam 1:6  And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has departed. Her rulers have become like bucks: they find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer.

Lam 1:7  In the days of her affliction and her wandering Jerusalem remembered all her desirable things from previous days; when her people fell into the hand of the foe; and there is no ally for her. The foes saw her; they laughed at her annihilation.

Lam 1:8  Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she has been removed. All knowing her despise her because they saw her nakedness; yea, she sighs and turns backward.

Lam 1:9  Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not remember her end, and has gone down astoundingly. There is no comforter for her. O Jehovah, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

Lam 1:10  The enemy has spread out his hand upon all her desirable things; for she has seen the nations enter her holy place, whom You commanded that they should not enter into Your congregation.

Lam 1:11  All her people sigh; they seek bread. They have given their desirable things for food to relieve the soul. See, O Jehovah, and look on me, for I have become vile.

Lam 1:12  Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which is done to me, with which Jehovah has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.

Lam 1:13  From above He has sent fire into my bones and it has laid them low. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me amazed and faint all the day.

Lam 1:14  The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; they intertwine; they rise on my neck. He has made my strength to falter; Jehovah has delivered me into their hands. I am not able to rise up.

Lam 1:15  Jehovah has trampled all my mighty ones in my midst; He has called a gathering against me to crush my young men. Jehovah has trod the virgin daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

Lam 1:16  For these I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who could refresh my soul is far from me. My sons are desolated because the enemy prevails.

Lam 1:17  Zion spreads forth her hands; none is comforting to me; Jehovah has commanded concerning Jacob that his enemies should be all around him; Jerusalem has become as an impure thing among them.

Lam 1:18  Jehovah is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. I beseech you, all peoples, hear and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men went into exile.

Lam 1:19  I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders expired in the city while they sought food for them to bring back their life.

Lam 1:20  Behold, O Jehovah, for I am in trouble; my inward parts ferment; my heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. On the outside the sword bereaves; in the house it is as death.

Lam 1:21  They hear that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All my enemies have heard my evil; they are glad that You have done it. You will bring the day that You have called, and they shall be like me.

Lam 1:22  Let all their wickedness come before You; and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart isfaint.

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

Lam 2:1  How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down the beauty of Israel from the heavens to the earth and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger.

Lam 2:2  The Lord swallowed up all the dwelling-places of Jacob and has not pitied. In His wrath He has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground. He has defiled the kingdom and its rulers.

Lam 2:3  He has cut off all the horn of Israel in His fierce anger; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like flaming fire which devours all around.

Lam 2:4  He has bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand like an adversary, and killed all who were desirable to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. He poured out His fury like fire.

Lam 2:5  Jehovah was like an enemy; He swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all her palaces, and destroyed His strongholds. And He has increased mourning and weeping in the daughter of Judah.

Lam 2:6  And He violated His booth like a garden, and destroyed His meeting places. Jehovah caused the meeting places and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and He despised the king and the priest in the fury of His anger.

Lam 2:7  Jehovah has cast off His altar; He rejected His sanctuary; He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hater’s hand. They gave a noise in the house of Jehovah, as a day of meeting.

Lam 2:8  Jehovah purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from swallowing, and He made rampart and wall lament; they languish together.

Lam 2:9  Her gates have sunk in the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her kings and her rulers are among the nations. The Law is no more; also her prophets also find no vision from Jehovah.

Lam 2:10  The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and are silent; they send up dust on their heads; they gird on sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Lam 2:11  My eyes fail with tears; my inward parts ferment; my liver is poured on the ground for the ruin of the daughter of my people, in that the children and the babies faint in the streets of the city.

Lam 2:12  They say to their mothers, Where are grain and wine? In their fainting they are like the wounded in the streets of the city, in their pouring out their lives to their mothers’ bosom.

Lam 2:13  What can I testify for you? What thing shall I compare to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to you, so that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your break is great like the sea! Who can heal you?

Lam 2:14  Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you, and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but they have seen false oracles and seductions for you.

Lam 2:15  All who pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city which they called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?

Lam 2:16  All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen.

Lam 2:17  Jehovah has done what He has purposed; He has fulfilled His Word which He commanded from the days of old. He has thrown down and not pitied. And He caused your hater to rejoice over you; He has set up the horn of your foes.

Lam 2:18  Their heart cried to Jehovah. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a torrent day and night; give yourself no rest. Let not the daughter of your eye cease.

Lam 2:19  Arise, cry out in the night. At the beginning of the watches, pour out your heart like water before the face of Jehovah. Lift up your hands toward Him for the life of your children who are faint for hunger in the head of every street.

Lam 2:20  Behold, O Jehovah, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, children of tender care? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the holy place of the Lord?

Lam 2:21  Young and old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of Your anger; You have killed and not pitied.

Lam 2:22  You have called as in a solemn day my terrors all around, and there was not an escaped one or a survivor in the day of Jehovah’s anger. Those whom I have nursed and multiplied, my enemy has consumed.

Great Is Your Faithfulness

Lam 3:1  I the man have seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

Lam 3:2  He has led me and made me go in darkness and not into light.

Lam 3:3  Surely He turned against me; He turns His hand all the day.

Lam 3:4  He has wasted my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones.

Lam 3:5  He built against me and has circled me with bitterness and hardship.

Lam 3:6  He has made me live in dark places, like the dead of old.

Lam 3:7  He has set a fence around me and I cannot go out; He has made my bronze chain heavy.

Lam 3:8  Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

Lam 3:9  He walled up my ways with cut stone; my paths are crooked.

Lam 3:10  He was a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in secret places.

Lam 3:11  He has turned my ways aside and torn me in pieces. He made me desolate.

Lam 3:12  He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Lam 3:13  He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts.

Lam 3:14  I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day.

Lam 3:15  He has filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with wormwood.

Lam 3:16  He also broke my teeth with gravel; He has covered me in the ashes.

Lam 3:17  And You cast off my soul from peace; I have forgotten blessedness.

Lam 3:18  And I said, My strength and my hope from Jehovah are gone.

Lam 3:19  Remember my affliction and my wandering, as wormwood and bitterness.

Lam 3:20  My soul vividly remembers and bows down on me.

Lam 3:21  I recall this to my mind; therefore I hope.

Lam 3:22  It is by Jehovah’s kindnesses that we are not destroyed, because His mercies never fail.

Lam 3:23  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Lam 3:24  Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him.

Lam 3:25  Jehovah is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

Lam 3:26  It is good that one should hope for the salvation of Jehovah, even in silence.

Lam 3:27  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Lam 3:28  He sits alone and keeps silence because He laid it on him.

Lam 3:29  He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may be hope.

Lam 3:30  He gives his cheek to Him who strikes him; he is filled with reproach.

Lam 3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever;

Lam 3:32  for though He causes grief, yet He will have pity according to the multitude of His kindnesses.

Lam 3:33  For He does not afflict from His heart, nor does He grieve the sons of men;

Lam 3:34  to crush all the prisoners of the earth under His feet;

Lam 3:35  to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High;

Lam 3:36  to pervert a man in his cause. This, Jehovah does not see.

Lam 3:37  Who is this who speaks, and it occurs, when the Lord does not command it?

Lam 3:38  From the mouth of the Most High does not go out the evil and the good.

Lam 3:39  What? Should mankind complain, a living man, because of his sins?

Lam 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.

Lam 3:41  Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in Heaven.

Lam 3:42  We have sinned and have rebelled; You have not forgiven.

Lam 3:43  You have wrapped Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain; You have not pitied.

Lam 3:44  You have wrapped Yourself with a cloud from any prayer passing through.

Lam 3:45  You have made us as the sweepings and garbage in the midst of the peoples.

Lam 3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Lam 3:47  Fear and a pit have come to us, shame and ruin.

Lam 3:48  Streams of water run down my eye for the ruin of the daughter of my people.

Lam 3:49  My eye flows out and does not cease, from there being no intermission,

Lam 3:50  until Jehovah shall look down and behold from Heaven.

Lam 3:51  My eye pains my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

Lam 3:52  My haters have hunted me, like a bird, without cause.

Lam 3:53  They have cut off my life in the pit, and cast a stone at me.

Lam 3:54  Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off.

Lam 3:55  I called on Your name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.

Lam 3:56  You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my relief, at my cry for help.

Lam 3:57  You drew near in the day that I called on You; You said, Fear not.

Lam 3:58  O Lord, You strove for the causes of my soul; You redeemed my life.

Lam 3:59  O Jehovah, You have seen my wrong; judge my cause.

Lam 3:60  You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

Lam 3:61  You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their plots against me;

Lam 3:62  the lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all the day.

Lam 3:63  Behold their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.

Lam 3:64  You will return to them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

Lam 3:65  You will give them dullness of heart, Your curse on them.

Lam 3:66  Pursue and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of Jehovah.

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

Lam 4:1  How the gold has become dim; the fine gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

Lam 4:2  The precious sons of Zion are weighed against pure gold; how they are counted as earthen vessels, the work of a potter’s hand!

Lam 4:3  Even the jackals draw out the breast; they suckle their young ones. The daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Lam 4:4  The suckling’s tongue cleaves to his palate in thirst; the young children ask bread; there is no breaking to them.

Lam 4:5  Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets; those reared in scarlet embrace dunghills.

Lam 4:6  And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is heaped more than the sin of Sodom, overthrown as in a moment, and no hands spun on her.

Lam 4:7  Her Nazarites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were redder of bone than corals; their cuttings as lapis lazuli, azure blue.

Lam 4:8  Their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up; it has become like wood.

Lam 4:9  Better are the ones slain by the sword than the ones slain by hunger; those who pine away, pierced because the fruits of my fields failed.

Lam 4:10  The hands of the pitying women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the ruin of the daughter of my people.

Lam 4:11  Jehovah has fulfilled His fury; He has poured out His fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations.

Lam 4:12  The kings of the earth, and all the people of the world, would not have believed that the foe and the hater would go into Jerusalem’s gates.

Lam 4:13  For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, shedding the blood of the just in her midst,

Lam 4:14  they reeled blind in the streets; they are defiled with blood, so that not any can touch their clothes.

Lam 4:15  They cried to them, Depart! Unclean! Depart, depart! Touch not! Indeed they fled and reeled; they said among the nations, They will not continue to live there.

Lam 4:16  The face of Jehovah has shared them out; He will no longer look on them; they did not respect the persons of the priests; they did not favor the elders.

Lam 4:17  While we are, our eyes fail, for our help is vain; in our watching we have watched for a nation; it does not save.

Lam 4:18  They hunted our steps from going in our streets; our end was near, our days were fulfilled, for our end has come.

Lam 4:19  Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

Lam 4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, In His shadow we shall live among the nations.

Lam 4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of Uz. The cup also shall pass through unto you; you shall be drunken and stripped naked.

Lam 4:22  The punishment of your iniquity is fulfilled, O daughter of Zion; He will exile you no more. He will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

Lam 5:1  Remember, O Jehovah, what has been to us; look down and see our shame.

Lam 5:2  Our inheritance has turned to aliens, our houses to foreigners.

Lam 5:3  We are orphans and fatherless; our mothers areas widows.

Lam 5:4  We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes for a price.

Lam 5:5  We are pursued on our necks; we grow weary; rest is not given to us.

Lam 5:6  We have given the hand to Egypt, to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.

Lam 5:7  Our fathers have sinned and are not; we have borne their iniquities.

Lam 5:8  Servants rule over us; there is no rescuer out of their hand.

Lam 5:9  We bring in our bread with our souls, because of the sword of the wilderness.

Lam 5:10  Our skin is hot like an oven because of the fever heat of famine.

Lam 5:11  They raped the women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

Lam 5:12  Rulers were hanged by the hand; the faces of elders were not honored.

Lam 5:13  They took the young men to grind, and the youths stumbled at the wood.

Lam 5:14  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

Lam 5:15  The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has turned into mourning.

Lam 5:16  The crown has fallen from our head. Woe now to us! For we have sinned.

Lam 5:17  Our heart is faint for this; our eyes are dim for these things.

Lam 5:18  On the mountain of Zion is laid waste, the foxes walk on it.

Lam 5:19  You, O Jehovah, remain forever; Your throne to generation and generation.

Lam 5:20  Why do You forget us forever and forsake us the length of days?

Lam 5:21  Return us to You, O Jehovah, and we will turn; renew our days as of old,

Lam 5:22  unless You have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.