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they will be like warriors in battle trampling down the mud of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put horsemen to shame.

I will strengthen the house of Judah and deliver the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had never rejected them. For I am Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

I will whistle and gather them because I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as they once were.

Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

If a man still prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him: You cannot remain alive because you have spoken falsely in the name of Yahweh. When he prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through.

"For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name in every place because My name will be great among the nations," says Yahweh of Hosts.

If you don't listen, and if you don't take it to heart to honor My name," says Yahweh of Hosts, "I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.

For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

"So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction."

And this is another thing you do: you cover the Lord 's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

Yet you ask, "For what reason?" Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant.

"Because I, Yahweh, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."

"In Bethlehem of Judea," they told him, "because this is what was written by the prophet:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah: because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd My people Israel. "

A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.

saying, "Get up! Take the child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, because those who sought the child's life are dead."

and saying, "Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!"

Jesus answered him, "Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him to be baptized.