“ But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands.

“但我们的列祖行事狂傲，硬着颈项不听从你的诫命；

“‘但我们的祖先行事狂傲，硬着颈项不听从你的诫命。

“‘但我们的祖先行事狂傲，硬着颈项不听从你的诫命。

但我们的祖先行事狂傲，顽固不化，不肯听从你的诫命。

但是我们的列祖狂妄自大，硬着颈项，不听从你的命令。

「但我們的列祖行事狂傲，硬着頸項不聽從你的誡命；

「『但我們的祖先行事狂傲，硬着頸項不聽從你的誡命。

「『但我們的祖先行事狂傲，硬着頸項不聽從你的誡命。

但我們的祖先行事狂傲，頑固不化，不肯聽從你的誡命。

但是我們的列祖狂妄自大，硬著頸項，不聽從你的命令。

『但是他們、我們的祖宗、狂妄傲慢，硬着脖子，不聽你的誡命，

惟我列祖、驕矜強項、不聽爾命、

當時之民、即我列祖、妄自矜詡、強項不馴、不聽從爾命、

當時之民、即我列祖、狂妄強項、不聽主命、

“ But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff- necked, and they did not obey your commands.

“ But our people before us became proud and stubborn. They didn’t obey your commands.

“ But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.

But our ancestors acted arrogantly; they became stiff-necked and did not listen to your commands.

“ But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.

“ But they and our fathers acted proudly, Hardened their necks, And did not heed Your commandments.

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

But our ancestors acted arrogantly; they became stiff-necked and did not listen to Your commands.

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

“ But they– our ancestors– behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments.

“ But they and our fathers behaved proudly, hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments,

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!

You displayed miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, his officials, and all his people, for you knew how arrogantly they were treating our ancestors. You have a glorious reputation that has never been forgotten.

“ 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.

“ But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes!

“ 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!

“ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:‘ I will bring disaster upon this city and its surrounding towns as I promised, because you have stubbornly refused to listen to me.’”

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.They forgot what he had done— the great wonders he had shown them,the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire.He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.They even spoke against God himself, saying,“ God can’t give us food in the wilderness.Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”When the Lord heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven.He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven.They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power.He rained down meat as thick as dust— birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths,the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore figs with sleet.He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.He loosed on them his fierce anger— all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives but ravaged them with the plague.He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them.He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws.They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people— his special possession.Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.But he rejected Joseph’s descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants— God’s own people, Israel.He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

“ But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.

For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. Your heads are as hard as bronze.

The Lord says,“ Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did.For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,‘ They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’

Remember what it says:“ Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”

Like our ancestors, we have sinned. We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath of loyalty in God’s name. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to turn to the Lord, the God of Israel.

“ O my people, listen to the words of the Lord! Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness? Why then do my people say,‘ At last we are free from God! We don’t need him anymore!’

Please overlook the stubbornness and the awful sin of these people, and remember instead your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But the Israelites would not listen. They were as stubborn as their ancestors who had refused to believe in the Lord their God.

Then the Lord said,“ I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.

Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever.

But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he became their enemy and fought against them.

You must warn each other every day, while it is still“ today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

“ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go in.You complained in your tents and said,‘ The Lord must hate us. That’s why he has brought us here from Egypt— to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered.Where can we go? Our brothers have demoralized us with their report. They tell us,“ The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there— the descendants of Anak!”’“ But I said to you,‘ Don’t be shocked or afraid of them!The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’“ But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God,who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not— you are a stubborn people.

And at Kadesh barnea the Lord sent you out with this command:‘ Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him.Yes, you have been rebelling against the Lord as long as I have known you.

Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.

Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery.

He said,“ If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

“ Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me!

“ The Lord also said to me,‘ I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.

Do not be stubborn, as they were, but submit yourselves to the Lord. Come to his Temple, which he has set apart as holy forever. Worship the Lord your God so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.

But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.