The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned listening to the LORD. Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. Therefore the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth. This year you will die, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD.’” So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

“There are three things which are stately in their march, four which are stately in going: The lion, which is mightiest among animals, and doesn’t turn away for any; the greyhound; the male goat; and the king against whom there is no rising up. “If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, or if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth. For as the churning of milk produces butter, and the wringing of the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife.”

In your name they rejoice all day. In your righteousness, they are exalted. For you are the glory of their strength. In your favor, our horn will be exalted. For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel. Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people. I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil, with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him. No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.

You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry? You pronounced judgment from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent, when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah. Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained. Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared. He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.

(for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

The kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning, standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’ The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and people’s bodies and souls. The fruits which your soul lusted after have been lost to you. All things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and you will find them no more at all.

Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.

“Won’t I in that day”, says the LORD, “destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau? Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter. For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them. But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress. Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.

They came in and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice and didn’t walk in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them.