Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹  But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ²  Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected. They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ³  They refuse to change their ways. ⁴ 

They did not keep their covenant with God, ¹  and they refused to obey ²  his law.

The violence ¹  done by the wicked ²  will drag them away because ³  they refuse to do what is right. ⁴ 

What the sluggard desires ¹  will kill him, ²  for his hands ³  refuse to work.

Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹  continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. ²  They refuse to turn back to me. ³ 

They do one act of violence after another, and one deceitful thing after another. ¹  They refuse to pay attention to me,” ²  says the Lord.

They will return to Egypt! ¹  Assyria will rule over them ²  because they refuse to repent! ³ 

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. ²  All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free.

They have gone back to the evil ways ¹  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ²  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ³  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.