We are all dying, and we are all like waters that flow into the ground and do not return. God does not will to lose a soul. Instead, he renews his efforts, thinking that what has been rejected might not perish altogether.
Thus says the Lord: "If the heavens above are able to be measured, and if the foundations of the earth beneath can be examined, I also will cast aside all the offspring of Israel, because of all that they have done, says the Lord.
And I will form an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not cease to do good for them. And I will put my fear into their heart, so that they do not withdraw from me.
"Have you not seen what this people has spoken? They say: 'The two families which the Lord had chosen have been rejected.' And so they have despised my people, as if they were no longer a nation in their sight.
What God is like you, who takes away iniquity and passes over the sin of the remnant of your inheritance? No longer will he send forth his fury, because he is willing to be merciful.
Thus says the Lord: If they had been perfect, and many of them so, yet still they would be pruned, and it will cross through them. I have afflicted you, and I shall afflict you no more.