Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee. I am weary of entreating thee.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will and in the perversity of their wicked heart, and went backward and not forward,
And I will stretch out my hand upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the wardens of the temples with the priests:
Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.
I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.
Therefore, behold, I will stretch forth my hand upon thee and will deliver thee to be the spoil of nations and will cut thee off from among the people, and destroy thee out of the lands and break thee in pieces: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
Hear, O earth: Behold, I will bring evils upon this people, the fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words and they have cast away my law.
Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in. Pour it out upon the child abroad and upon the council of the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient and he that is full of days.
And I will pronounce my judgements against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me and have sacrificed to strange gods and have adored the work of their own hands.
And when the prophet shall err and speak a word: I the Lord have deceived that prophet: and I will stretch forth my hand upon him and will cut him off from the midst of my people Israel.
Then I said: I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. And there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones: and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord, the God of hosts.
For my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again: expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit. And the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together.
And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch for my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, saith the Lord. I will not spare and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy not to destroy them.
So that the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land is become a desolation and an astonishment and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.