On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this

In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.

Only acknowledge your guilt— you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’” declares the Lord.

I hear a cry as of a woman in labor, a groan as of one bearing her first child— the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, “Alas! I am fainting; my life is given over to murderers.”

I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.

Put on sackcloth, my people, and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord Almighty.’

We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—

Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure— not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.

You who are the hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night?

Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.

I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.

“Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.

“But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.”

This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away?

They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will perish.

But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

I am with you and will save you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished.’

“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”

This is what the Lord says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the Lord.

while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.

Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.”