The Lord says: I will not relent from punishing Judah for three crimes, even four, because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord and have not kept His statutes. The lies that their ancestors followed have led them astray.

耶和华如此说：“犹大人三番四次地犯罪，我必不免去他们的刑罚；因为他们厌弃耶和华的训诲，不遵守他的律例。他们列祖所随从虚假的偶像使他们走迷了。

耶和华如此说：“犹大三番四次犯罪，厌弃耶和华的训诲，不遵守他的律例；他们祖先所随从虚假的偶像使他们走迷了，我必不撤销对它的惩罚。

耶和华如此说：“犹大三番四次犯罪，厌弃耶和华的训诲，不遵守他的律例；他们祖先所随从虚假的偶像使他们走迷了，我必不撤销对它的惩罚。

耶和华说：“犹大人三番四次地犯罪，我必不收回对他们的惩罚，因为他们厌弃耶和华的训诲，不遵守我的律例。他们祖先祭拜的偶像使他们走入歧途。

“耶和华这样说：‘犹大三番四次犯罪，我必不收回惩罚他的命令；因为他弃绝耶和华的律法，不遵守他的典章；反被他们列祖跟从的偶像，使他们走错了路。

耶和華如此說：猶大人三番四次地犯罪，我必不免去他們的刑罰；因為他們厭棄耶和華的訓誨，不遵守他的律例。他們列祖所隨從虛假的偶像使他們走迷了。

耶和華如此說：「猶大三番四次犯罪，厭棄耶和華的訓誨，不遵守他的律例；他們祖先所隨從虛假的偶像使他們走迷了，我必不撤銷對它的懲罰。

耶和華如此說：「猶大三番四次犯罪，厭棄耶和華的訓誨，不遵守他的律例；他們祖先所隨從虛假的偶像使他們走迷了，我必不撤銷對它的懲罰。

耶和華說：「猶大人三番四次地犯罪，我必不收回對他們的懲罰，因為他們厭棄耶和華的訓誨，不遵守我的律例。他們祖先祭拜的偶像使他們走入歧途。

“耶和華這樣說：‘猶大三番四次犯罪，我必不收回懲罰他的命令；因為他棄絕耶和華的律法，不遵守他的典章；反被他們列祖跟從的偶像，使他們走錯了路。

永恆主這麼說：『猶大三番四次地悖逆，我必不收回成命，因為他們棄絕了永恆主的指教，不遵守他的律例；他們的偶像——虛謊——就是他們列祖所隨從的、使他們走迷了路了。

耶和華曰、猶大干罪、至三至四、我不挽回厥罰、以其棄耶和華之法律、不守其典章、厥祖所行之虛誕、使之迷惘、

耶和華又曰、猶大犯罪、至三至四、更藐視我法度、不守我禮儀、其祖奉事虛偽、彼亦昏迷於道、故我必罰其罪、

主如是云、猶大人犯罪、至三至四、更藐視主之律法、不守其律例、其祖崇事虛偽、彼亦為斯虛偽所迷、故我降罰以報之、必不挽回、

This is what the Lord says:“ For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed,

The Lord says,“ The people of Judah have sinned again and again. So I will judge them. They have refused to obey my law. They have not kept my rules. Other gods have led them astray. Their people of long ago worshiped those gods.

Thus says the Lord:“ For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.

This is what the Lord says:“ The people of Judah have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They have rejected the instruction of the Lord, refusing to obey his decrees. They have been led astray by the same lies that deceived their ancestors.

The LORD says: I will not relent from punishing Judah for three crimes, even four, because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD and have not kept his statutes. The lies that their ancestors followed have led them astray.

This is what the Lord says:“ For three offenses of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they rejected the Law of the Lord And have not kept His statutes; Their lies also have led them astray, Those which their fathers followed.

Thus says the Lord:“ For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they have despised the law of the Lord, And have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray, Lies which their fathers followed.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away[ the punishment] thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:

This is what the LORD says:“ Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions– make that four!– I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They rejected the LORD’s law; they did not obey his commands. Their false gods, to which their fathers were loyal, led them astray.

Yahweh says:“ For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh’s law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;

For they did not practice My ordinances but rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.

because they rejected My ordinances, profaned My Sabbaths, and did not follow My statutes. For their hearts went after their idols.

“ But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances— the person who does them will live by them. They also completely profaned My Sabbaths. So I considered pouring out My wrath on them in the wilderness to put an end to them.

The Lord also has a dispute with Judah. He is about to punish Jacob according to his ways; He will repay him based on his actions.

For you said,“ We have cut a deal with Death, and we have made an agreement with Sheol; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, it will not touch us, because we have made falsehood our refuge and have hidden behind treachery.”

What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes idols that cannot speak.

The head is the elder, the honored one; the tail is the prophet, the lying teacher.The leaders of the people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

Even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced.

We have acted corruptly toward You and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances You gave Your servant Moses.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.Then he commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah:“ Go and inquire of the Lord for me, the people, and all Judah about the instruction in this book that has been found. For great is the Lord’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us.”So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second District. They spoke with her.She said to them,“ This is what the Lord God of Israel says,‘ Say to the man who sent you to Me:This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read,because they have abandoned Me and burned incense to other gods in order to provoke Me with all the work of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will become like something rotten and their blossoms will blow away like dust, for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of Hosts, and they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people. He raised His hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like garbage in the streets. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike.

I have known only you out of all the clans of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.

“ But if you do not obey Me and observe all these commands—if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands— and break My covenant,

“ Then I said to their children in the wilderness: Don’t follow the statutes of your fathers, defile yourselves with their idols, or keep their ordinances.

Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say,“ Our fathers inherited only lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.”Can one make gods for himself? But they are not gods.

The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and snared. They have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they really have?

Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.”

They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim,‘ This is the Lord’s declaration,’ when the Lord did not send them, yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.Didn’t you see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you proclaimed,‘ This is the Lord’s declaration,’ even though I had not spoken?“ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: I am against you because you have spoken falsely and had lying visions.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.“ My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. They will not be present in the fellowship of My people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, and they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.“ Since they have led My people astray saying,‘ Peace,’ when there is no peace, for when someone builds a wall they plaster it with whitewash,therefore, tell those who plaster it that it will fall. Torrential rain will come, and I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will be released.Now when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked,‘ Where is the coat of whitewash that you put on it?’“ So this is what the Lord God says: I will release a windstorm in My wrath. Torrential rain will come in My anger, and hailstones will fall in destructive fury.I will tear down the wall you plastered with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.After I exhaust My wrath against the wall and against those who plaster it with whitewash, I will say to you: The wall is no more and neither are those who plastered it—those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw a vision of peace for her when there was no peace.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord came to me again:“ Son of man, explain Jerusalem’s detestable practices to her.You are to say: This is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.As for your birth, your umbilical cord wasn’t cut on the day you were born, and you weren’t washed clean with water. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.No one cared enough about you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. But you were thrown out into the open field because you were despised on the day you were born.“ I passed by you and saw you lying in your blood, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live! Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live!I made you thrive like plants of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were stark naked.“ Then I passed by you and saw you, and you were indeed at the age for love. So I spread the edge of My garment over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.“ I washed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil.I clothed you in embroidered cloth and provided you with leather sandals. I also wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.I adorned you with jewelry, putting bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful tiara on your head.So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became extremely beautiful and attained royalty.Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor, which I had bestowed on you.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.“ But you were confident in your beauty and acted like a prostitute because of your fame. You lavished your sexual favors on everyone who passed by. Your beauty became his.You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and you engaged in prostitution on them. These places should not have been built, and this should never have happened!You also took your beautiful jewelry made from the gold and silver I had given you, and you made male images so that you could engage in prostitution with them.Then you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set My oil and incense before them.You also set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I gave you— the fine flour, oil, and honey that I fed you. That is what happened.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.“ You even took your sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them to these images as food. Wasn’t your prostitution enough?You slaughtered My children and gave them up when you passed them through the fire to the images.In all your detestable practices and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were stark naked and lying in your blood.“ Then after all your evil— Woe, woe to you!”— the declaration of the Lord God—“ you built yourself a mound and made yourself an elevated place in every square.You built your elevated place at the head of every street and turned your beauty into a detestable thing. You spread your legs to everyone who passed by and increased your prostitution.You engaged in promiscuous acts with Egyptian men, your well-endowed neighbors, and increased your prostitution to provoke Me to anger.“ Therefore, I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your provisions. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the Philistine women, who were embarrassed by your indecent behavior.Then you engaged in prostitution with the Assyrian men because you were not satisfied. Even though you did this with them, you were still not satisfied.So you extended your prostitution to Chaldea, the land of merchants, but you were not even satisfied with this!“ How your heart was inflamed with lust”— the declaration of the Lord God—“ when you did all these things, the acts of a brazen prostitute,building your mound at the head of every street and making your elevated place in every square. But you were unlike a prostitute because you scorned payment.You adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors.So you were the opposite of other women in your acts of prostitution; no one solicited you. When you paid a fee instead of one being paid to you, you were the opposite.“ Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord!This is what the Lord God says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness exposed by your acts of prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children that you gave to them,I am therefore going to gather all the lovers you pleased— all those you loved as well as all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose your nakedness to them so they see you completely naked.I will judge you the way adulteresses and those who shed blood are judged. Then I will bring about your bloodshed in wrath and jealousy.I will hand you over to them, and they will level your mounds and tear down your elevated places. They will strip off your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you stark naked.They will bring a mob against you to stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgments against you in the sight of many women. I will stop you from being a prostitute, and you will never again pay fees for lovers.So I will satisfy My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be silent and no longer angry.Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged Me with all these things, I will also bring your actions down on your own head.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.“ Haven’t you committed immoral acts in addition to all your detestable practices?“ Look, everyone who uses proverbs will say this proverb about you: Like mother, like daughter.You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you.Didn’t you walk in their ways and do their detestable practices? It was only a short time before you behaved more corruptly than they did.“ As I live”— the declaration of the Lord God—“ your sister Sodom and her daughters have not behaved as you and your daughters have.Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn’t support the poor and needy.They were haughty and did detestable things before Me, so I removed them when I saw this.But Samaria did not commit even half your sins. You have multiplied your detestable practices beyond theirs and made your sisters appear righteous by all the detestable things you have committed.You must also bear your disgrace, since you have been an advocate for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you because of your sins, which you committed more abhorrently than they did. So you also, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.“ I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and those of Samaria and her daughters. I will also restore your fortunes among them,so you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did when you comforted them.As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.Didn’t you treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn when you were proud,before your wickedness was exposed? It was like the time you were scorned by the daughters of Aram and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines— those who treated you with contempt from every side.You yourself must bear the consequences of your indecency and detestable practices”— this is the Lord’s declaration.“ For this is what the Lord God says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am Yahweh,so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh and did not worship Him.

Don’t be like your fathers and your brothers who were unfaithful to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors so that He made them an object of horror as you yourselves see.

Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to My word. They have rejected My instruction.

But they were disobedient and rebelled against You. They flung Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets who warned them in order to turn them back to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah. When I return My people from captivity,

Because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies, even though I have not caused him grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil way to save his life,

“ The days are coming”— the Lord’s declaration—“ when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

You despise My holy things and profane My Sabbaths.

All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the Lord’s temple that He had consecrated in Jerusalem.But Yahweh, the God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of His messengers, sending them time and time again, for He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers, despising His words, and scoffing at His prophets, until the Lord’s wrath was so stirred up against His people that there was no remedy.So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their choice young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; He handed them all over to him.

Among the prophets of Samaria I saw something disgusting: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.Among the prophets of Jerusalem also I saw a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, and none turns his back on evil. They are all like Sodom to Me; Jerusalem’s residents are like Gomorrah.Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says concerning the prophets: I am about to feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.

“ Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than Oholah, and made her promiscuous acts worse than those of her sister.She lusted after the Assyrians: governors and prefects, warriors splendidly dressed, horsemen riding on steeds, all of them desirable young men.And I saw that she had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path.But she increased her promiscuity when she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion,wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers, a depiction of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.At the sight of them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. But after she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.When she flaunted her promiscuity and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust just as I turned away from her sister.Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egyptand lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.

You did more evil than your fathers. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying Me.

He feeds on ashes. His deceived mind has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself, or say,“ Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

“ I have heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in My name have said,‘ I had a dream! I had a dream!’How long will this continue in the minds of the prophets prophesying lies, prophets of the deceit of their own minds?Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause My people to forget My name as their fathers forgot My name through Baal worship.The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has My word should speak My word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”— this is the Lord’s declaration.“ Is not My word like fire”— this is the Lord’s declaration—“ and like a hammer that pulverizes rock?Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets”— the Lord’s declaration—“ who steal My words from each other.I am against the prophets”— the Lord’s declaration—“ who use their own tongues to make a declaration.I am against those who prophesy false dreams”— the Lord’s declaration—“ telling them and leading My people astray with their falsehoods and their boasting. It was not I who sent or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people”— this is the Lord’s declaration.

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold,

Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.

The Lord said to Moses,“ You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon commit adultery with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break the covenant I have made with them.My anger will burn against them on that day; I will abandon them and hide My face from them so that they will become easy prey. Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say,‘ Haven’t these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us?’I will certainly hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

Her prophets plaster with whitewash for them by seeing false visions and lying divinations, and they say,‘ This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife— you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’

“ Therefore say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord God says: Are you defiling yourselves the way your fathers did, and prostituting yourselves with their detestable things?

we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commands and ordinances.We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel— those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where You have dispersed them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward You.Lord, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against Himand have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following His instructions that He set before us through His servants the prophets.All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him.He has carried out His words that He spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us so great a disaster that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven.

The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah,“ Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, but you have led these people to trust in a lie.Therefore, this is what the Lord says:‘ I am about to send you off the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have spoken rebellion against the Lord.’”

They will be exposed to the sun, the moon, and the whole heavenly host, which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the surface of the soil.

Then Jeshurun became fat and rebelled— you became fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with detestable practices.They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known, new gods that had just arrived, which your fathers did not fear.You ignored the Rock who gave you birth; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.When the Lord saw this, He despised them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.He said:“ I will hide My face from them; I will see what will become of them, for they are a perverse generation— unfaithful children.They have provoked My jealousy with their so-called gods; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will provoke their jealousy with an inferior people; I will enrage them with a foolish nation.For fire has been kindled because of My anger and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the land and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.“ I will pile disasters on them; I will use up My arrows against them.They will be weak from hunger, ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs, as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, there will be terror; the young man and the young woman will be killed, the infant and the gray-haired man.“ I would have said: I will cut them to pieces and blot out the memory of them from mankind,if I had not feared insult from the enemy, or feared that these foes might misunderstand and say:‘ Our own hand has prevailed; it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’”

The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baalsand abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They infuriated the Lord,for they abandoned Him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies.Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as He had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders,but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their fathers did.Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them.Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to worship and bow down to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He declared,“ Because this nation has violated My covenant that I made with their fathers and disobeyed Me,

So I am like rot to Ephraim and like decay to the house of Judah.When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent a delegation to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

You warned them to turn back to Your law, but they acted arrogantly and would not obey Your commands. They sinned against Your ordinances, which a person will live by if he does them. They stubbornly resisted, stiffened their necks, and would not obey.You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit warned them through Your prophets, but they would not listen. Therefore, You handed them over to the surrounding peoples.