I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick snatched from a fire, yet you did not return to me – This is the Lord’s declaration.
The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this man a burning stick snatched from the fire? ’
Among the prophets of Jerusalem also I saw a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, and none turns his back on evil. They are all like Sodom to me; Jerusalem’s residents are like Gomorrah.
Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
I gave you absolutely nothing to eat , in all your cities, a shortage of food in all your communities, yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshipping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart; my compassion is stirred!
Because of the depravity of your uncleanness – since I tried to purify you, but you would not be purified from your uncleanness – you will not be pure again until I have satisfied my wrath on you.
As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbours,’ says the Lord, ‘no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.
And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Armies had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. ,
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulphur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord demolished in his fierce anger.
Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smouldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.
Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have consumed Israel with open mouths. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.
Lord, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return.
Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns – this is the Lord’s declaration – so no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily as a temporary resident.