Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob, because they are filled with Eastern influences. They are fortunetellers like the Philistines, and they make deals with foreigners.
“What right do these people I love have to be in my house when they do so many devious things? Can the meat from their sacrifices turn disaster away from them? They rejoice when they do evil.”
Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you despise Zion? Why have you struck us so hard that we cannot heal? We hope for peace, but no good comes from it. We hope for a time of healing, but there’s only terror.
You will lose the inheritance that I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you haven’t heard of. I will do this because you have stirred up the fire of my anger. It will burn forever.
“When these people, the prophets, or the priests ask you, ‘What revelation has the Lord burdened you with now?’ say to them, ‘You are the burden! I will abandon you, declares the Lord.’
So what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that is called by my name. This is the place I gave to you and to your ancestors, the place where you feel so safe.
“Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the bare hills, because in his anger the Lord has rejected and abandoned the people of this generation.
‘Tell the nation of Israel, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to dishonor my holy place. You brag that my holy place gives you strength. It’s the thing you love the most. It’s your hearts’ desire. So the sons and daughters that you left behind will die in battle.
“All Ephraim’s wickedness began in Gilgal; I hated the people there. I will force them out of my temple because of their wickedness, and I won’t love them anymore. All their officials are rebellious.
I will gather all the nations. I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will judge them there. They scattered the Israelites, the people who belong to me, among the nations. They divided my land.
Swords will cut them down, and they will be carried off into all nations as prisoners. Nations will trample Jerusalem until the times allowed for the nations ⌞to do this⌟ are over.
About the tribe of Benjamin he said, “The Lord’s beloved people will live securely with him. The Lord will shelter them all day long, since he, too, lives on the mountain slopes.”