אַלּוּף

Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

Magdiel, and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom.

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend.

Our oxen will bear great loads. There will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of lament in our streets.

…who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.

Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but he who brings it up separates friends.

Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.

For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?

Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

I will remove the blood from their mouths and the abominations from between their teeth. Then they too will become a remnant for our God; they will become like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.

Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’

On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.