“Therefore I will still contend with you,” declares the Lord, “And I will contend with your sons’ sons.

Your own wickedness will correct you, And your apostasies will punish you; Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter For you to abandon the Lord your God, And the fear of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord God of armies.

How well you prepare your way To seek love! Therefore even to the wicked women You have taught your ways.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a prostitute’s forehead; You refused to be ashamed.

Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them, A wolf of the deserts will destroy them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, Because their wrongdoings are many, Their apostasies are numerous.

Judgment Proclaimed

Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of armies says: “Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words fire in your mouth, And this people wood, and it will consume them.

Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.

Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not ashamed at all, Nor did they know even how to be ashamed. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They will collapse,” says the Lord.

Therefore hear, you nations, And know, you congregation, what is among them.

Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am placing stumbling blocks before this people. And they will stumble against them, Fathers and sons together; Neighbor and friend will perish.”

therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.

Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

“Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.

Therefore I will give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Everyone practices deceit.

Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not ashamed at all, And they did not know how to be ashamed; Therefore they will fall among those who fall; At the time of their punishment they will collapse,” Says the Lord.

Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says: “Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink.

For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the Lord. Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart, each one of them; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’”

Therefore this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.

Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the people of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, saying: “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, so that you do not die by our hand”;

therefore, this is what the Lord of armies says: “Behold, I am going to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine;

My inheritance has become to Me Like a lion in the forest; She has roared against Me; Therefore I have come to hate her.

Captivity Threatened

“Therefore you are to speak this word to them. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’

Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw To the desert wind.