This happened because they refused to obey the Lord their God and disregarded the conditions of the promise he made to them. They refused to obey everything that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded.
and said, “I am ashamed, my God. I am embarrassed to look at you. Our sins have piled up over our heads, and our guilt is so overwhelming that it reaches heaven.
We have rebelled and denied the Lord. We have turned away from our God. We have spoken about oppression and revolt. We have conceived and uttered lies in our hearts.
We must lie down in our shame and be covered by our disgrace. Ever since we were young, we and our ancestors have sinned against the Lord our God. We haven’t obeyed the Lord our God.
All your lovers have forgotten you, and they don’t want you anymore. I’ve punished you as an enemy would. I’ve corrected you as a cruel person would. You are very wicked, and you have many sins.
It is because their people did evil, and they made me angry. They went to burn incense and serve other gods that neither you nor your ancestors heard of.
“The Lord is right in what he did, because I rebelled against his word. Please listen, all you people, and look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
“O Lord, see the distress I’m in! My stomach is churning. My heart is pounding because I’ve been very bitter. In the streets swords kill my children. Inside the houses it’s like death.
The people of Jerusalem have rebelled against my rules and my laws more than the surrounding nations. They have rejected my rules, and they don’t live by my laws.
Then those who escape will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive. I was hurt by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted after idols. They will hate themselves for the evil and disgusting things that they have done.
All Israel has ignored your teachings and refused to listen to you. So you brought on us the curses you swore in an oath, the curses written in the Teachings of your servant Moses. We sinned against you.
When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, the Lord told him, “Marry a prostitute and have children with that prostitute. The people in this land have acted like prostitutes and abandoned the Lord.”
Since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my laws and have not followed them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’