3 Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the entire family I rescued from Egypt:

³ And the people of this evil nation who survive will wish to die rather than live where I will send them. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!

Judgment against Israel’s Leaders

The Failure of Israel’s Leaders

The Lord’s Case against Israel

¹⁶ “Son of man, take a piece of wood and carve on it these words: ‘This represents Judah and its allied tribes.’ Then take another piece and carve these words on it: ‘This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel.’^{[a] 17} Now hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood.

²⁴ “Have you noticed what people are saying?—‘The Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them!’ They are sneering and saying that Israel is not worthy to be counted as a nation. ²⁵ But this is what the Lord says: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky. ²⁶ I will never abandon the descendants of Jacob or David, my servant, or change the plan that David’s descendants will rule the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead, I will restore them to their land and have mercy on them.”

Hope for Restoration

31 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.

Freedom from Babylon