“Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,
A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, That sniffs the wind in her passion. In the time of her heat who can turn her away? All who seek her will not become weary; In her month they will find her.
Who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ And to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to Me, And not their face; But in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise and save us.’
“In vain I have struck your sons; They accepted no chastening. Your sword has devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion.
“O generation, heed the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; We will no longer come to You’?
“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me Days without number.
God says, “If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me,” declares the LORD.
“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been violated? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the desert, And you have polluted a land With your harlotry and with your wickedness.
“Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a harlot’s forehead; You refused to be ashamed.
Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.
And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’
“Then I said, ‘How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’
“Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the LORD their God.
“Surely, the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.
“Lift up a standard toward Zion! Seek refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, And great destruction.
“A lion has gone up from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations has set out; He has gone out from his place To make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins Without inhabitant.
Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.”
In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people--not to winnow and not to cleanse,
a wind too strong for this--will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.
For a voice declares from Dan, And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
“Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim over Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers come from a far country, And lift their voices against the cities of Judah.
‘Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about, Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the LORD.
I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
For thus says the LORD, “The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.
For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.”
“Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, And look now and take note. And seek in her open squares, If you can find a man, If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, Then I will pardon her.
Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them, A wolf of the deserts will destroy them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, Because their transgressions are many, Their apostasies are numerous.
“Shall I not punish these people,” declares the LORD, “And on a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
“Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD’S.
“Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an enduring nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.
“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make you a complete destruction.
It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.
‘For wicked men are found among My people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap, They catch men.
‘Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.
‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD, ‘On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?’
“Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem! Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa And raise a signal over Beth-haccerem; For evil looks down from the north, And a great destruction.
For thus says the LORD of hosts, “Cut down her trees And cast up a siege against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose midst there is only oppression.
“As a well keeps its waters fresh, So she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her; Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
“Be warned, O Jerusalem, Or I shall be alienated from you, And make you a desolation, A land not inhabited.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts, “They will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer Over the branches.”
To whom shall I speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; They have no delight in it.
“For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”
Thus says the LORD, “Behold, a people is coming from the north land, And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.
“They seize bow and spear; They are cruel and have no mercy; Their voice roars like the sea, And they ride on horses, Arrayed as a man for the battle Against you, O daughter of Zion!”
We have heard the report of it; Our hands are limp. Anguish has seized us, Pain as of a woman in childbirth.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
For Permission to Quote information visit http://www.lockman.org by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved.