12 The Holy One (God) of Israel says, “You people have refused to accept this message from the Lord. You people want to depend on fighting and lies to help you.
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you despise and spurn this [My] word and trust in cunning and oppression, in crookedness and perverseness, and rely on them,
12 Because of this, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Since you have rejected this word, and you have hoped in calumny and rebellion, and since you have depended upon these things,
\{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.
The Lord says this: “I will definitely punish Judah for the many crimes they did. {\cf2\super [35]} Why? Because they refused to obey the Lord’s commands. They didn’t keep his commands. Their ancestors {\cf2\super [36]} believed \{lies\}. And those same lies caused the people of Judah to quit following God.
You do bad things, but still you feel safe.\par You think to yourself,\par ‘No one sees the wrong things I do.’\par You think that your wisdom and knowledge\par will save you.\par You think to yourself,\par ‘I am the only one.\par No one is important like me.’\par
“When a person listens to you, that person is really listening to me. But when a person refuses to accept you, that person is really refusing to accept me. And when a person refuses to accept me, he is refusing to accept the One (God) that sent me.”
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.
You people say, “We have made an agreement with death. We have a contract with Sheol—\{the place of death\}. So we will not be punished. Punishment will pass us without hurting us. We will hide behind our tricks and lies.”
The field of grapes that belongs to the Lord All-Powerful is the nation of Israel. The grapevine—the plant the Lord loves—is the man of Judah. {\cf2\super [48]}
Don’t trust the power to take things by force.\par Don’t think you will gain anything by stealing.\par And if you become rich,\par don’t trust your riches to help you.\par
What gives you the right to hurt my people? What gives you the right to push the faces of the poor people into the dirt?” My Master, the Lord All-Powerful said these things.
Their plan will not succeed while Samaria is the capital of Ephraim (Israel) and while the ruler of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. {\cf2\super [81]} If you don’t believe this message then people should not believe you.”
My Master said, “These people refuse to accept the slow-moving waters of the pool of Shiloah. {\cf2\super [98]} These people are happy with Rezin {\cf2\super [99]} and Remaliah’s son (Pekah).
The Lord will leave his place {\cf2\super [245]} \par to judge the people of the world\par for the bad things they have done.\par The earth will show the blood\par of the people that have been killed.\par The earth will not cover the dead people\par
No person tells the truth about other people. People sue each other in court, and they depend on false arguments to win their cases. They tell lies about each other. They are full of trouble, and they give birth to evil.
We sinned and turned against the Lord.\par We turned away from him and left him.\par We planned evil things.\par We planned things that are against God.\par We have thought of these things\par and planned them in our hearts.\par