The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!

^14 (A)even if these three men, ^(B)Noah, ^(C)Daniel, and ^(D)Job, were in it, ^(E)they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.

²⁰ even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.

²¹ “For thus says the Lord God: How much more ^(A)when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, ^(B)sword, ^(C)famine, ^(D)wild beasts, and ^(E)pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!

¹¹ The Lord said to me: ^(A)“Do not pray for the welfare of this people.

¹⁴ “Therefore ^(A)do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, ^(B)for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.

^15 (A)And I will cast you out of my sight, ^(B)as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^(C)Ephraim.

¹⁶ “As for you, ^(D)do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

¹¹ But ^(A)Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ^12 (B)Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and ^(C)relent from this disaster against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you ^(D)swore by your own self, and said to them, ^(E)‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ¹⁴ And the Lord ^(F)relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.