Yet you are our Father, even though Abraham does not know us and Israel doesn’t recognise us. You, Lord, are our Father; your name is Our Redeemer from Ancient Times.
Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
I thought, ‘How I long to make you my sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations.’ I thought, ‘You will call me “My Father” and never turn away from me.’
‘A son honours his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the Lord of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.’ Yet you ask, ‘How have we despised your name? ’
They will come weeping, but I will bring them back with consolation. , I will lead them to wadis filled with water, by a smooth way where they will not stumble, for I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: Because of you, I will send an army to Babylon and bring all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they rejoice.
Then David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly. David said, May you be blessed, Lord God of our father Israel, from eternity to eternity.
Indeed, your husband is your Maker – his name is the Lord of Armies – and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten.
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
You will nurse on the milk of nations, and nurse at the breast of kings; you will know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God.