Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.“ But you ask,‘ How can we return when we have never gone away?’

万军之耶和华说：从你们列祖的日子以来，你们常常偏离我的典章而不遵守。现在你们要转向我，我就转向你们。你们却问说：‘我们如何才是转向呢？’

从你们祖先的日子以来，你们就偏离我的律例而不遵守。现在你们要转向我，我就转向你们。这是万军之耶和华说的。你们却说：‘我们如何转向呢？’

从你们祖先的日子以来，你们就偏离我的律例而不遵守。现在你们要转向我，我就转向你们。这是万军之耶和华说的。你们却说：‘我们如何转向呢？’

万军之耶和华说：“从你们祖先开始，你们就常常偏离我的律例，不肯遵从。现在你们要转向我，我就转向你们。可是你们竟然说，‘我们怎么转向你呢？’

“从你们列祖的日子以来，你们就偏离了我的律例而不遵守。现在你们要转向我，我就必转向你们。你们还问：‘我们要怎样回转呢？’

万军之耶和华说：“从你们祖先的日子以来，你们就偏离我的律例而不遵守。现在你们当转向我，我就转向你们！你们竟然问：‘我们怎样转向你呢？’

萬軍之耶和華說：從你們列祖的日子以來，你們常常偏離我的典章而不遵守。現在你們要轉向我，我就轉向你們。你們卻問說：『我們如何才是轉向呢？』

從你們祖先的日子以來，你們就偏離我的律例而不遵守。現在你們要轉向我，我就轉向你們。這是萬軍之耶和華說的。你們卻說：『我們如何轉向呢？』

從你們祖先的日子以來，你們就偏離我的律例而不遵守。現在你們要轉向我，我就轉向你們。這是萬軍之耶和華說的。你們卻說：『我們如何轉向呢？』

萬軍之耶和華說：「從你們祖先開始，你們就常常偏離我的律例，不肯遵從。現在你們要轉向我，我就轉向你們。可是你們竟然說，『我們怎麼轉向你呢？』

“從你們列祖的日子以來，你們就偏離了我的律例而不遵守。現在你們要轉向我，我就必轉向你們。你們還問：‘我們要怎樣回轉呢？’

萬軍之永恆主說：從你們列祖的日子以來，你們總偏離了我的律例、而不遵守。現在你們要轉向着我，我就轉向着你們。但你們卻還問說：「我們要在甚麼事上轉向呢？」

萬軍之耶和華說：「從你們祖先的日子以來，你們就偏離我的律例而不遵守。現在你們當轉向我，我就轉向你們！你們竟然問：『我們怎樣轉向你呢？』

萬軍之耶和華曰、自爾列祖之日、爾偏離我律例、而不守之、當返於我、我則返於爾、爾乃曰於何而返乎、

萬有之主耶和華曰、自列祖以來、爾背我法度、不遵我道、然爾歸誠於我、而我必復加眷顧、爾曰、若何為之歸誠、

萬有之主曰、自爾列祖之日以來、爾棄我律例而不守之、今當歸誠於我、則我必復眷顧爾、則我必復眷顧爾原文作則我必歸於爾爾曰、如何方為歸誠、

Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.“ But you ask,‘ How are we to return?’

You have turned away from my rules. You have not obeyed them. You have lived that way ever since the days of your people of long ago. Return to me. Then I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all.“ But you ask,‘ How can we return?’

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say,‘ How shall we return?’

“ Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Armies. Yet you ask,“ How can we return?”

“ From the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of armies.“ But you say,‘ How shall we return?’

Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts.“ But you said,‘ In what way shall we return?’

From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?

“ Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from My statutes; you have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Hosts. But you ask:“ How can we return?”

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept[ them]. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored my commandments and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD who rules over all.“ But you say,‘ How should we return?’

From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies.“ But you say,‘ How shall we return?’

Therefore, say to the people,‘ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’

For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors— a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat. But they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.

But regarding Israel, God said,“ All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”

“ But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

“ But as soon as they were at peace, your people again committed evil in your sight, and once more you let their enemies conquer them. Yet whenever your people turned and cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them many times!“ You warned them to return to your Law, but they became proud and obstinate and disobeyed your commands. They did not follow your regulations, by which people will find life if only they obey. They stubbornly turned their backs on you and refused to listen.In your love, you were patient with them for many years. You sent your Spirit, who warned them through the prophets. But still they wouldn’t listen! So once again you allowed the peoples of the land to conquer them.

The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the Lord says:“ O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken!“ Return home, you wayward children,” says the Lord,“ for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel— one from this town and two from that family— from wherever you are scattered.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down.

For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

“ My wayward children,” says the Lord,“ come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”“ Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply,“ for you are the Lord our God.

But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.“ In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you.For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.

“ In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions.If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today,then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you.Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again.

All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.

“ But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands.They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them,

“ Remember and never forget how angry you made the Lord your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him.Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord so angry he was ready to destroy you.This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.The Lord gave me the two tablets on which God had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain.“ At the end of the forty days and nights, the Lord handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant.Then the Lord said to me,‘ Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!’“ The Lord also said to me,‘ I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’“ So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.There below me I could see that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow!So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.“ Then, as before, I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger.I feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the Lord spared him.I took your sin— the calf you had made— and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

“ What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs— beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.

“ You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.“ But you say,‘ What do you mean? What have we said against you?’

“ But the people of Israel rebelled against me, and they refused to obey my decrees there in the wilderness. They wouldn’t obey my regulations even though obedience would have given them life. They also violated my Sabbath days. So I threatened to pour out my fury on them, and I made plans to utterly consume them in the wilderness.

“ Please remember what you told your servant Moses:‘ If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations.But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray,‘ We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their enemies and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors— toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name—then hear their prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause.

for when I brought them into the land I had promised them, they offered sacrifices on every high hill and under every green tree they saw! They roused my fury as they offered up sacrifices to their gods. They brought their perfumes and incense and poured out their liquid offerings to them.

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests:“ A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name!“ But you ask,‘ How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’

“ But despite all this, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They turned their backs on your Law, they killed your prophets who warned them to return to you, and they committed terrible blasphemies.

But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments!This is what God in his wisdom said about you:‘ I will send prophets and apostles to them, but they will kill some and persecute the others.’“ As a result, this generation will be held responsible for the murder of all God’s prophets from the creation of the world—from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, it will certainly be charged against this generation.

Then they will not be like their ancestors— stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his instructions.

For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even now, while I am still alive and am here with you, you have rebelled against the Lord. How much more rebellious will you be after my death!“ Now summon all the elders and officials of your tribes, so that I can speak to them directly and call heaven and earth to witness against them.I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, making him very angry with your actions.”

“ But their children, too, rebelled against me. They refused to keep my decrees and follow my regulations, even though obedience would have given them life. And they also violated my Sabbath days. So again I threatened to pour out my fury on them in the wilderness.

“ But they rebelled against me and would not listen. They did not get rid of the vile images they were obsessed with, or forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I threatened to pour out my fury on them to satisfy my anger while they were still in Egypt.

“ Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you!Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel?I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful— even worse than their ancestors.

“ You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One— the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered.

At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,