Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but only in pretense, says the Lord.

I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn with no one to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

O Jerusalem, wash your heart clean of wickedness so that you may be saved. How long shall your evil schemes lodge within you?

Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your doom; how bitter it is! It has reached your very heart.”

Sorrow for a Doomed Nation

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

They do not say in their hearts, “Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.”

The Prophet Mourns for the People

My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick.

but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaved temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

You plant them, and they take root; they grow and bring forth fruit; you are near in their mouths yet far from their hearts.

But you, O Lord, know me; you see me and test me; my heart is with you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my heart into the hands of her enemies.

They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate, but no one lays it to heart.

And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you are violated.

The People Plead for Mercy

Have you completely rejected Judah? Does your heart loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We look for peace but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.

Punishment Is Inevitable

Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars,

Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it?

I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous; you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.