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42 Then My fury and jealousy will be satisfied, and I will be at peace and not angry with you any longer. 43 Because you failed to remember the days of your youth but instead you infuriated Me with countless perverted love affairs, I will pay you back for every ounce of indecency you instigated. I, the Eternal Lord, proclaim this.
Did you not add vulgar acts to your streak of shocking sins? 44 Everyone who likes to quote proverbs will certainly be quoting this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 You truly are the daughter of your pagan mother, who loathed her husband and despised her children. You truly are a sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and despised their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite. 46 Your older sister is Samaria, who lives to the north with her daughters. Your younger sister, Sodom, lives to the south with her daughters. 47 Not only did you imitate the ways and follow the shocking actions of your sisters, but soon you became even more corrupt than they ever were. 48 As surely as I live, your sister, Sodom, and her daughters never acted as badly as you and your daughters have acted. 49 This was the sin of your warped sister, Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, gluttonous, and lazy. She never gave help to the poor and needy. 50 They were prideful, and they did abhorrent things right in front of Me, shamelessly and without remorse! As you already know, I put an end to Sodom and her daughters when I saw their behavior. 51 And don’t forget Samaria! She didn’t sin half as much as you. You have committed far more shocking deeds than they ever did. With all the detestable things you have done, you make your sister seem righteous. 52 Face your humiliation; your sisters will fare better in judgment in light of your wickedness. Compared with your despicable deeds, they are more righteous than you. You should be ashamed of yourself! You have to live with your disgrace; for compared to you, your sisters seem righteous!
53 However, I am going to restore the fortunes of your sisters—Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters—and I’ll restore your fortunes too. 54 You still must live with your disgrace and bear the shame for what you have done, for your two sisters will be comforted in comparison with your wickedness. 55 You and your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all of your daughters will become again what you once were. 56 In the days when you were prideful, you looked down upon your sister, Sodom. You wouldn’t even say her name. 57 But that was before your evil was exposed! Now you are looked down upon by everyone! The daughters of Syria[a] and all of her neighbors and the daughters of Philistia despise you! 58 But you must live with the consequences of your indecent and shocking behavior. I, the Eternal Lord, proclaim this.
59 You will get what you deserve from Me because you have despised My oath and broken our sacred covenant. 60 But I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish with you a new covenant which will last forever! 61 Then you will remember your evil ways and be filled with remorse when you receive back your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of our covenant. 62 I will securely establish My covenant with you, and you will know I am the Eternal One. 63 You will remember your wretched past and shut your mouth because of the deep sense of shame within you when I forgive you for all the evil you have done. I, the Eternal Lord, proclaim this.
17 The word of the Eternal came to me with a riddle.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, tell the people of Israel a riddle. 3 Tell them the Eternal Lord says that a great eagle with strapping wings, long feathers, and thick plumage of various colors came to Lebanon. The great eagle took the top off of a cedar, 4 carried its top growth away to a land of merchants, and planted it in a city of traders. 5 Then the great eagle took some of the seed of the land and planted it in lush, fertile soil beside abundant waters so it could grow like a willow. 6 The seed sprouted in the soil and became a flourishing vine, growing low to the ground. The vine’s branches grew toward the great eagle, and the roots remained beneath it. The vine produced many sprouts and branches.
7 There was another great eagle with strapping wings and thick, colorful plumage. From where it had been planted, the vine sent out its roots and branches toward the second eagle, so that eagle could give it even more water. 8 The vine had been planted in lush, fertile soil beside abundant waters in order to produce healthy growth and branches, bear fruit, and become a magnificent vine instead of remaining a lowly one.
9 Now I, the Eternal Lord, ask, will that vine continue to flourish? Won’t the eagle pull it out of the lush, fertile soil by its roots, strip it of its fruit, and leave it to wither? It won’t take much strength or many people to pull it up by the roots. 10 Now if it is transplanted, will it flourish? When the angry east wind strikes it, won’t it wither away completely? Won’t it shrivel up in the plot of ground where it had grown?
11 The word of the Eternal came to me.
Eternal One: 12 Ask this rebellious crowd if they know what these stories represent. Give them this explanation: Remember how Babylon’s king swooped into Jerusalem like an eagle and took its young king and national leaders back to Babylon. 13 He replaced that young king with a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, making the new king swear an oath of loyalty. Babylon’s king also ordered all the remaining leaders of Judah taken into exile 14 so that the kingdom would remain weak and lowly, not able to rise up against him, and survive only by following the provisions of his covenant. 15 But Jerusalem’s newly appointed leader rebelled against Babylon’s king by sending his ambassadors to another king in Egypt to receive horses and recruit a large army. Do you think Jerusalem’s king and his ambassadors will succeed? Is it possible to get away with such things? Can this vassal king break a covenant and escape?
16 As surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, I declare that Jerusalem’s King Zedekiah will die in Babylon, the land of the king who gave him Jerusalem’s throne and whom he despised when he broke that covenant. 17 Pharaoh and his powerful army, a vast company, won’t be of any help when Babylon builds ramps and erects siege walls against Jerusalem; many will be destroyed behind those city walls. 18 Jerusalem’s king broke his word and betrayed the covenant. Because he pledged his allegiance, yet committed these betrayals, he will not escape.
19 Therefore, I say, as surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, what Jerusalem’s king despised was My oath and what he betrayed was My covenant. I will make him pay the consequences. 20 I will set a trap for him, and he will be caught in it. I will bring him to Babylon and punish him there because of his unfaithfulness and disloyalty to Me. 21 All of his elite soldiers will be killed in battle, and whoever manages to survive will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the Eternal One, have promised this.
This parable dramatizes Babylon’s attack on Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, represented by the first eagle, is indeed the largest predator in the area. He swooped into Jerusalem and exiled the young king, Jehoiachin, who was plucked from the top of the cedar tree. Nebuchadnezzar then planted a new monarch in Jerusalem, Zedekiah, as a vassal of Babylon.
Jerusalem flourishes under Zedekiah but doesn’t gain any power, just as the vine is strong but not tall. But when Zedekiah becomes ambitious for sovereignty, he will send envoys to King Hophra in Egypt—represented by the second eagle—looking for mercenaries. This betrayal will lead to Jerusalem’s complete destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Since God is using Babylon to punish His disobedient people, and since Zedekiah’s betrayal will reflect badly on Him, the coming destruction is none other than divine judgment.
Eternal One: 22-23 I personally will take a sprig from the top growth of a lofty cedar—the highest, youngest, and most flexible—and plant it on a high and lofty mountain, on the mountain of Israel. It will produce healthy branches and bear fruit and become a noble cedar. All sorts of birds will come and nest in it and find shade in its branches. 24 All the trees of the field will know that I am the Eternal; I cut down the tall tree and make the small tree tall; I cause the flourishing tree to wither and the withering tree to flourish. I, the Eternal, have spoken, and I will do exactly as I’ve promised.
8 So let me sum up what we’ve covered so far, for there is much we have said: we have a High Priest, a perfect Priest who sits in the place of honor in the highest heavens, at the right hand of the throne of the Majestic One, 2 a Minister within the heavenly sanctuary set up by the Lord, not by human hands.
3 As I have said, it is the role of every high priest to offer gifts and sacrifices to God, so clearly this Priest of ours must have something to offer as well. 4 If He were on earth, then He would not be a priest at all because there are already priests who can offer gifts according to the law of Moses 5 in a sanctuary that is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. We know this because God admonished Moses as he set up the tent for the Lord’s sanctuary: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I showed you on the mountain.”[a] 6 But now Jesus has taken on a new and improved priestly ministry; and in that respect, He has been made the Mediator of a better covenant established on better promises. 7 Remember, if the first covenant had been able to reconcile everyone to God, there would be no reason for a second covenant. 8 God found fault with the priests when He said through the prophet Jeremiah,
“Look! The time is coming,” the Eternal Lord says,
“when I will bring about a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of slavery in the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to that covenant,
so,” the Eternal One says, “I turned away from them.
10 But when those days are over,” the Eternal One says, “I will make
this kind of covenant with the people of Israel:
I will put My laws on their minds
and write them upon their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be My people.
11 In those days, they won’t need to teach each other My ways
or to say to each other, ‘Know the Eternal.’
In those days, all will know Me,
from the least to the greatest.
12 I will be merciful when they fail,
and I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory
as though they had never existed.”[b]
13 With the words “a new covenant,” God made the first covenant old, and what is old and no longer effective will soon fade away completely.
13 But it didn’t take long for them to forget what He had done.
They moved on without waiting for His instructions,
14 So our ancestors became very hungry in the wilderness
and the rabble grumbled and complained, testing God’s patience in the desert.
15 Although He granted their request,
He also sent a disease that caused them to waste away.
16 While they were camped in the desert, some began to be jealous of Moses
and Aaron, the holy priest of the Eternal.
17 The earth opened up, and a deep fissure swallowed Dathan
and buried Abiram’s group.
18 A blaze ignited where they were gathered;
the fire consumed the wicked mob.
19 The people made a golden calf in Horeb
and bowed to worship an image they had made.
20 They traded the glory of God
for the likeness of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot about God, their True Savior,
who had done great things for them in Egypt—
22 Miracles in the land of Ham
and amazing deeds at the Red Sea.
23 Therefore, He declared in His anger that He would wipe them away.
If Moses, His chosen one,
Had not pleaded for the people,
His anger would have destroyed them.
24 At the edge of the beautiful land God had promised them,
they didn’t trust His words, so they refused to enter.
25 They complained when they were gathered in their tents;
they ignored the voice of the Eternal.
26 Because of their attitude, He swore,
“I’ll leave you where you fall in the desert.
27 I’ll scatter your children—whoever is left—
throughout the nations all over the earth.”
28 Then they aligned themselves with the god of Peor,
and they ate sacrifices that had been made to lifeless gods.
29 Through their actions, they stirred up His anger,
and a plague broke out in their midst.
30 Then Phinehas took a stand and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
31 And God saw what he did and considered him righteous,
a man to be honored by all generations forever.
7 The person who is full has no interest in honey;
but to the starving, bitterness itself is sweet.
8 Like a bird that strays far from its nest,
so is a person who forsakes his own home.
9 The heart is delighted by the fragrance of oil and sweet perfumes,
and in just the same way, the soul is sweetened by the wise counsel of a friend.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.