In spite of all this, ¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ²  says the Lord.

“If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord, “if you want to come back to me ¹  you must get those disgusting idols ²  out of my sight and must no longer go astray. ³ 

I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this! ¹ 

There is still medicinal ointment ¹  available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! ²  Why then have my dear people ³  not been restored to health? ⁴ 

I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ¹ 

Then I said, ¹  “O Lord, intervene for the honor of your name ²  even though our sins speak out against us. ³  Indeed, ⁴  we have turned away from you many times. We have sinned against you.

Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³ 

Their widows will become in my sight more numerous ¹  than the grains of sand on the seashores. At noontime I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men. ²  I will cause anguish ³  and terror to fall suddenly upon them. ⁴ 

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

“Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ¹  “Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ²  the Lord asks. ³ 

Tell them that the Lord says, ¹  ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. ² 

Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: ¹  Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like ²  a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale?

The Lord affirms, ¹  “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.” ² 

“I, Lord, make the following promise: ¹  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ²  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ³  could break that covenant

But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ¹  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth.

“Find Jeremiah ¹  and look out for him. ²  Do not do anything to harm him, ³  but do with him whatever he tells you.”

For did not you people of Moab laugh at the people of Israel? Did you think that they were nothing but thieves, ¹  that you shook your head in contempt ²  every time you talked about them? ³ 

And as for them, ¹  whether they listen ²  or not – for they are a rebellious ³  house ⁴  – they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Or can anyone make a peg from it to hang things on?

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved.