4 The nation of Israel is full of guilt. This guilt is like a heavy weight the people have to carry. Those people are like bad children from evil families. They left the Lord. They insulted the Holy One (God) of Israel. They left him and treated him like a stranger.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised and shown contempt and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have become utterly estranged (alienated).
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.
4 Doom! Sinful nation, people weighed down with crimes, evildoing offspring, corrupt children! They have abandoned the LORD, despised the holy one of Israel; they turned their backs on God.
4 Woe to a sinful nation, a people burdened by iniquity, a wicked offspring, accursed children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. They been taken away backwards.
\{Bad things will happen to those people\}. Their descendants {\cf2\super [55]} will be completely destroyed—like straw and leaves are burned by fire. Their descendants will be destroyed like a root \{that dies and\} becomes dust. Their descendants will be destroyed like a fire destroys a flower—the ashes blow away in the wind.
“My people have done two evil things.\par They turned away from me\par (I am the spring of living water),\par and they dug their own water cisterns.\par (They turned to other gods.)\par But their cisterns are broken.\par Those cisterns can’t hold water.\par
Why is this true? Because if a person’s thinking is controlled by his sinful self, then that person is against God. That person refuses to obey God’s law. And really that person is not able to obey God’s law.
Many Pharisees {\cf2\super [37]} and Sadducees {\cf2\super [38]} came to the place where John was baptizing people. When John saw them he said to them: “You are all snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming?
But I am not the one the people of Judah are really hurting.” This message is from the Lord. “They are only hurting themselves. They are bringing shame on themselves.”
You did bad things,\par and those bad things will only\par bring punishment to you.\par Trouble will come to you.\par And that trouble will teach you a lesson.\par Think about it!\par Then you will understand how bad it is\par to turn away from your God.\par It is wrong not to fear and respect me!”\par This message was from my Master,\par the Lord All-Powerful.\par
Those people say, “We wish God would hurry and do the things he plans to do. Then we would know what will happen. We wish the Lord’s plan would happen soon. Then we would know what his plan is.”
The Lord All-Powerful\par did not leave Israel and Judah alone,\par like a woman whose husband has died.\par God did not leave those people.\par No! Those people are guilty\par of leaving the Holy One of Israel.\par They left him,\par but he has not left them.\par
“Call for the men that shoot arrows.\par Tell them to attack Babylon.\par Tell them to surround the city.\par Don’t let anyone escape.\par Pay her back for the bad things she has done.\par Do to her what she has done\par to other nations.\par Babylon did not respect the Lord.\par Babylon was very rude\par to the Holy One of Israel.\par So punish Babylon.\par
This is what the Lord says:\par “Do you think that I was not fair\par to your ancestors {\cf2\super [4]} ?\par Is that why they turned away from me?\par Your ancestors worshiped worthless idols,\par and they became worthless themselves.\par
Those people are in front of me always making me angry. Those people offer sacrifices {\cf2\super [466]} and burn incense {\cf2\super [467]} in their special gardens. {\cf2\super [468]}
People will see these things,\par and they will know\par that the Lord’s power did this.\par The people will see these things,\par and they will begin to understand.\par that the Holy One (God) of Israel\par did these things.”\par
You will throw them into the air,\par and the wind will blow them away\par and scatter them.\par Then you will be happy in the Lord.\par You will be very proud of the Holy One (God) of Israel.”\par
But who did you insult and make fun of?\par Who did you speak against?\par You were against the Holy One of Israel!\par You acted like you were better than him!\par
The Lord my Master, the Holy One of Israel, says, “If you come back to me you will be saved. The only strength you have will come if you trust me. But you must be calm.”
Many other kings have died.\par And they all have their own graves.\par But you will not join them.\par Why? Because you ruined your own country.\par You killed your own people.\par Your children will not continue\par to destroy like you did.\par Your children will be stopped.\par
I will send Assyria to fight against the people that do evil things. I am angry at those people, and I will command Assyria to fight against them. Assyria will defeat them and Assyria will take their wealth from them. Israel will become like dirt for Assyria to trample (walk on) in the streets.
This will happen because Jerusalem has stumbled \{and has done wrong\}. Judah has fallen \{and has stopped following God\}. The things they say and do are against the Lord. The Lord’s glorious eyes clearly see all these things.
Your rulers are rebels and friends of thieves. All of your rulers demand bribes—they accept money for doing wrong things. All of your rulers take pay for cheating people. Your rulers don’t try to help the children that have no parents. And your rulers don’t listen to the needs of the women whose husbands are dead.”
If the people teach their God’s commands\par to their children,\par then the children will not be like\par their ancestors. {\cf2\super [444]} \par Their ancestors turned against God.\par They refused to obey him.\par Those people were stubborn.\par They were not loyal to God’s Spirit.\par
So the people of Israel cried to the Lord for help. They said, “God, we have sinned against you. We left our God and worshiped the false god Baal. [95] ”
The Lord said to Moses, “You will die soon. And after you have gone to be with your ancestors, [205] these people will not continue to be faithful to me. They will break the Agreement I made with them. They will leave me and begin worshiping other gods—the false gods of the land where they are going.
The answer will be: ‘The Lord is angry because the people of Israel left the Agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors. [194] They stopped following the Agreement that the Lord made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
And I will play the harp and praise you.My God, I will sing that you can be trusted.I will play songs on my lyre {\cf2\super [409]} for the Holy One of Israel.
All the people are evil. So the Lord is not happy with the young men. And the Lord will not show mercy to their widows and orphans. {\cf2\super [111]} Why? Because all the people are evil. The people do things that are against God. The people speak lies. So God will continue to be angry with the people. God will continue to punish the people.
But, it is the Lord who is wise. And it is the Lord who will bring trouble against them. The people will not be able to change the Lord’s command. The Lord will rise and fight against the evil people (Judah). And the Lord will fight against the people (Egypt) that try to help them.
These people did evil things,\par and it made me angry.\par So, I punished Israel.\par I turned away from him\par because I was angry.\par And Israel left me.\par He went wherever he wanted.\par
Then they will come every day\par to worship me.\par And they will want to learn my ways.\par They will become a nation that lives right.\par They will not quit following\par God’s good commands.\par They will ask me to judge them fairly.\par They will want to go to God\par \{for his fair decisions\}.\par
“But you people left the Lord, so you will be punished. You people forgot about my holy mountain. {\cf2\super [472]} You began to worship Luck. You depend on the false god Fate. {\cf2\super [473]}
Jerusalem, you left me.”\par This message is from the Lord.\par “Again and again you left me!\par So I will punish and destroy you.\par I am tired of holding back your punishment.\par
I will destroy Jerusalem because of all the evil things the people of Israel and Judah have done. The people, their kings, leaders, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem have all made me angry.
You are your mother’s daughter. You don’t care about your husband or your children. You are just like your sister. Both of you hated your husband and your children. \{\} Your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite.
None of the people of Israel obeyed your teachings. They all have turned away. They did not obey you. There are curses {\cf2\super [101]} and promises written in the Law of Moses. (Moses was God’s servant.) Those curses and promises tell about the punishment for not obeying the law—and all those things have happened to us. Those things happened to us because we sinned against the Lord.
Some people turned away from the Lord. They quit following me. Those people stopped asking the Lord for help. So I will remove those people from that place.”
At the same time, the Lord said to Moses, “Go down from this mountain. Your people, the people you brought out of the land of Egypt, have done a terrible sin.
Rehoboam became a strong king. He also made his kingdom strong. Then Rehoboam and the family group of Judah {\cf2\super [166]} refused to obey the law of the Lord.
Jotham did the things the Lord wanted him to do. He obeyed God just like his father Uzziah had done. But Jotham did not enter the Lord’s temple {\cf2\super [310]} to burn incense {\cf2\super [311]} like his father did. But the people continued doing wrong.
The people of Israel turned away from God.\par They turned against him\par just like their fathers did.\par They changed directions like a boomerang. {\cf2\super [452]} \par
The Lord said, “Look at these children. They don’t obey me. They make plans, but they don’t ask me to help them. They make agreements with other nations, but my Spirit does not want those agreements. These people are adding more and more sins to themselves.