Old/New Testament

3 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

² “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. ³ Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed. ⁴ Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’?

⁵ “‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”

⁶ Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there. ⁷ I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute. ⁹ Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood. ¹⁰ Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.

¹¹ Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹² Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever. ¹³ Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’” says Yahweh. ¹⁴ “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh, “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵ I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made. ¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁹ “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’

²⁰ “Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. ²¹ A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God. ²² Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.

“Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. ²³ Truly help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains, is in vain. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God. ²⁴ But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”

4 “If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you will not be removed; ² and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”

³ For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns. ⁴ Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. ⁵ Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’ ⁶ Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”

⁷ A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸ For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn’t turned back from us. ⁹ “It will happen at that day,” says Yahweh, “that the heart of the king will perish, along with the heart of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.”

¹⁰ Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind blows from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse. ¹² A full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them.”

¹³ Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined. ¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵ For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim: ¹⁶ “Tell the nations, behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷ As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says Yahweh. ¹⁸ “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment. ²¹ How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²² “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.” ²³ I saw the earth and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴ I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. ²⁵ I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled. ²⁶ I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger. ²⁷ For Yahweh says, “The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. ²⁸ For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”

²⁹ Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. ³⁰ You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life. ³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

5 “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. ² Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”

³ O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

⁴ Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God. ⁵ I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. ⁶ Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

⁷ “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. ⁸ They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. ⁹ Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ “Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not Yahweh’s. ¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

¹² They have denied Yahweh, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine. ¹³ The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”

¹⁴ Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them. ¹⁵ Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say. ¹⁶ Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men. ¹⁷ They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.

¹⁸ “But even in those days,” says Yahweh, “I will not make a full end of you. ¹⁹ It will happen when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰ “Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, ²¹ ‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear: ²² Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’

²³ “But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone. ²⁴ They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

²⁵ “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. ²⁶ For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men. ²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich. ²⁸ They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

²⁹ “Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰ “An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land. ³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

4 But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, ² through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron, ³ forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. ⁵ For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

⁶ If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed. ⁷ But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness. ⁸ For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now and of that which is to come. ⁹ This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance. ¹⁰ For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. ¹¹ Command and teach these things.

¹² Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, pay attention to reading, to exhortation, and to teaching. ¹⁴ Don’t neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders. ¹⁵ Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all. ¹⁶ Pay attention to yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.