^18 (A)Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

²¹ Thus says the Lord: ^(A)“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²² nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I ^(B)commanded your fathers. ^23 (C)But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but ^[a]made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

⁴ “Do not be like your fathers, ^(A)to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(B)“Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord.

“So they returned and said:

⁹ Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

²⁷ “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then ^(A)I will kindle a fire in its gates, ^(B)and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be ^(C)quenched.” ’ ”

¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God ^(A)have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, ¹⁴ should we ^(B)again break Your commandments, and ^(C)join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be ^(D)angry with us until You had ^[a]consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ O Lord God of Israel, ^(E)You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. ^(F)Here we are before You, ^(G)in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”

¹⁷ Is the iniquity ^(A)of Peor not enough for us, from which we are not cleansed till this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord, ¹⁸ but that you must turn away this day from following the Lord? And it shall be, if you rebel today against the Lord, that tomorrow ^(B)He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.