כָּלָא

The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

“Listen to us, sir. You are God’s chosen one among us. Bury your dead in the finest of our tombs. None of us will withhold his tomb for burying your dead.”

After Moses had given an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: “No man or woman should make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing more,

Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.

O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.

You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.

I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word.

As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth—

At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the day it was brought down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it; I held back its rivers; its abundant waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops.