This is what the Lord says to me:
    ‘I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling-place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.’
For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
    and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
    and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
    the wild animals all winter.

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