¹⁰ This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, ^(A)who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is ^(B)good for nothing.

¹² and because ^(A)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(B)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.

¹⁴ but ^(A)have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their fathers, ^(A)sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ^16 (B)But they kept mocking the messengers of God, ^(C)despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, ^(D)until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people ^(A)despise me? And how long will they not ^(B)believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

The New Life

¹⁷ Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They ^(D)are darkened in their understanding, ^(E)alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to ^(F)their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They ^(G)have become callous and ^(H)have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

^51 (A)“You stiff-necked people, ^(B)uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. ^(C)As your fathers did, so do you.

⁷ Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took ^(A)the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was ^(B)spoiled; it was ^(C)good for nothing.

⁷ For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, ^(A)warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, ^(B)Obey my voice. ^8 (C)Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, ^(D)but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all ^(E)the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”