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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols.

because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.“ Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them.

The Lord has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds.

Because you have said,“ We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

“ What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!

the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.

Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.

We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,“ Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe( now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her.And she said to them,“ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:‘ Tell the man who sent you to me,Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read.Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.

Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

“ You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

“ But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,

“ And I said to their children in the wilderness,‘ Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say:“ Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!”

The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them?

but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say,‘ Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word.Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said,‘ Declares the Lord,’ although I have not spoken?”Therefore thus says the Lord God:“ Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God.My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God.Precisely because they have misled my people, saying,‘ Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash,say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out.And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you,‘ Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end.And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord.Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it,the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord God.

Again the word of the Lord came to me:“ Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations,and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.“ And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood,‘ Live!’ I said to you in your blood,‘ Live!’I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.“ When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.“ But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.Also my bread that I gave you— I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey— you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God.And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matterthat you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.“ And after all your wickedness( woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God),you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square.At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger.Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied.You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.“ How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute,building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings.So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.“ Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord:Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them,therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare.They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more.So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry.Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?“ Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you:‘ Like mother, like daughter.’You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.“ I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst,that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them.As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state.Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride,before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you.You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord.“ For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant,yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you.I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”

The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.

Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.

Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

“ Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I restore the fortunes of my people,

Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life,

“ Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.

All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand.

In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:“ Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

“ Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea.When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister.Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egyptand lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.”

and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.

He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say,“ Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying,‘ I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart,who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord.Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another.Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare,‘ declares the Lord.’Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

And the Lord said to Moses,“ Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day,‘ Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying,‘ Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’

“ Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go whoring after their detestable things?

we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against himand have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem.

And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah,“ Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.Therefore thus says the Lord:‘ Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”

And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.

“ But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.“ The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.And he said,‘ I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.“‘ And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them;they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.I would have said,“ I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,”had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say,“ Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Lord who did all this.”’

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger.They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said,“ Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.