Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

“In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion.

“Your own conduct and actions have brought this on you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!”

Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Cut down the trees and build siege ramps against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; it is filled with oppression.

Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the Lord.

Sin and Punishment

“Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return?

Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord.

Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—

“What is my beloved doing in my temple as she, with many others, works out her evil schemes? Can consecrated meat avert your punishment? When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice.”

therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

This is what the Lord says about this people: “They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”

I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the Lord. I will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you.’”

Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord.

“Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,” declares the Lord.

If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ I will punish them and their household.

“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.

“‘“If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the Lord, until I destroy it by his hand.

this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against me.’”

All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many.

Their children will be as in days of old, and their community will be established before me; I will punish all who oppress them.

You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins into the laps of their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty,