³⁰ Many years you were patient with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the peoples of the lands.

⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^(A)

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.^(A)

The Fall of Jerusalem

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place,^{(A) 16} but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.^(B)

¹³ Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law that I commanded your ancestors and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”^{(A) 14} They would not listen but were stubborn, as their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.^{(B) 15} They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their ancestors and the warnings that he had given them. They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.^{(C) 16} They rejected all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast images of two calves; they made a sacred pole,^[a] worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.^{(D) 17} They made their sons and their daughters pass through fire, used divination and augury, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.^{(E) 18} Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.^(F)

²¹ because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.^[a](A)

¹¹ inquiring about the time and circumstances^[a] that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings intended for Christ and the subsequent glory.^(A)

¹³ Just as, when I^[a] called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts,^(A)