⁶ He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.^[a]

¹⁶ He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.^{(A) 17} With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”^(B)

²⁶ For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins^{(A) 27} but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.^{(B) 28} Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”^{(C) 29} How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?^{(D) 30} For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”^[a] And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”^{(E) 31} It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³⁵ so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

The Lament over Jerusalem

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you, desolate.^[a]