For thou are a holy people to LORD thy God. LORD thy God has chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil, for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem.
Kill utterly the old man, the young man, and the virgin, and little sons, and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men who were before the house.
Thus says LORD to this people: Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
What will thou say when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou thyself have taught to be friends to thee? Shall not sorrows take hold of thee as of a woman in travail?
Therefore thus says LORD of hosts: Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,
Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name. For they have devoured Jacob. Yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says LORD. And they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls of it round about, and
These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations. And from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.
And he made from one blood every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined prescribed times, and the limits of their occupancy,
because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, who sells nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.
As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but LORD does not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt.
And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, to which she burned incense when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says LORD.
For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of LORD, to do righteousness and justice, to the end that LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoke
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven to the other, whether there has been [anything] as this great thing is, or has been he
Thus says LORD: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment of it, because they have rejected the law of LORD, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, accord
Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure in the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
Therefore thus says LORD: Behold, I devise an evil against this family, from which ye shall not remove your necks, nor shall ye walk haughtily, for it is an evil time.
And now go, lead the people to [the place] of which I have spoken to thee. Behold, my [heavenly] agent shall go before thee. Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.