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Hear, heavens,
    and listen, earth; for Yahweh[a] has spoken:
“I have nourished and brought up children
    and they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows his owner,
    and the donkey his master’s crib;
    but Israel doesn’t know.
    My people don’t consider.”
Ah sinful nation,
    a people loaded with iniquity,
    offspring[b] of evildoers,
    children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken Yahweh.
    They have despised the Holy One of Israel.
    They are estranged and backward.
Why should you be beaten more,
    that you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick,
    and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it:
    wounds, welts, and open sores.
    They haven’t been closed, bandaged, or soothed with oil.
Your country is desolate.
    Your cities are burned with fire.
    Strangers devour your land in your presence
    and it is desolate,
    as overthrown by strangers.
The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
    like a hut in a field of melons,
    like a besieged city.
Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,
    we would have been as Sodom.
    We would have been like Gomorrah.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:2 “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.
  2. 1:4 or, seed

A Message for Rebellious Judah

Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth!
    This is what the Lord says:
“The children I raised and cared for
    have rebelled against me.
Even an ox knows its owner,
    and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—
but Israel doesn’t know its master.
    My people don’t recognize my care for them.”
Oh, what a sinful nation they are—
    loaded down with a burden of guilt.
They are evil people,
    corrupt children who have rejected the Lord.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel
    and turned their backs on him.

Why do you continue to invite punishment?
    Must you rebel forever?
Your head is injured,
    and your heart is sick.
You are battered from head to foot—
    covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds—
    without any soothing ointments or bandages.
Your country lies in ruins,
    and your towns are burned.
Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes
    and destroy everything they see.
Beautiful Jerusalem[a] stands abandoned
    like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest,
    like a helpless city under siege.
If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    had not spared a few of us,[b]
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
    destroyed like Gomorrah.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:8 Hebrew The daughter of Zion.
  2. 1:9 Greek version reads a few of our children. Compare Rom 9:29.