Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶ The Lord said to me in the days of ^(A)King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, ^(B)how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there ^(C)played the whore? ⁷ And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^(D)sister Judah saw it. ⁸ She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^(E)I had sent her away with ^(F)a decree of divorce. ^(G)Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^(H)and played the whore. ⁹ Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^(I)stone and tree. ¹⁰ Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^(J)with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹ And the Lord said to me, ^(K)“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹² Go, and proclaim these words toward ^(L)the north, and say,

¹⁵ “‘And ^(T)I will give you shepherds after my own heart, ^(U)who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, ^(V)and all nations shall gather to it, ^(W)to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ^18 (X)In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land ^(Y)of the north to ^(Z)the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ^(A)God gave them up to ^(B)a debased mind to do ^(C)what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know ^(D)God's righteous decree that those who practice such things ^(E)deserve to die, they not only do them but ^(F)give approval to those who practice them.

God's Righteous Judgment

2 Therefore you have ^(G)no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For ^(H)in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ² We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. ³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on ^(I)the riches of his kindness and ^(J)forbearance and ^(K)patience, ^(L)not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are ^(M)storing up ^(N)wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

^6 (O)He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who ^(P)by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ but for those who are self-seeking^[a] and ^(Q)do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be tribulation and distress ^(R)for every human being who does evil, the Jew ^(S)first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and ^(T)peace for everyone who does good, ^(U)the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For ^(V)God shows no partiality.