From our ancestors’ days until now, we have been deep in guilt. Our kings and our priests have been handed over to foreign kings to be executed. We have been taken captive, robbed, and humiliated, as we still are today because of our sins.
But they were defiant and rebelled against you. They threw your teachings over their shoulders and killed your prophets who warned them to turn back to you. They committed outrageous sins.
You were patient with them for many years. You warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. However, they wouldn’t listen. So you handed them over to the people in the surrounding nations.
What more could have been done for my vineyard than what I have already done for it? When I waited for it to produce good grapes, why did it produce only sour, wild grapes?
“For 23 years, from the time that Josiah, son of Amon, was in his thirteenth year as king of Judah until today, the Lord continued to speak his word to me. So I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
Jonadab, Rechab’s son, ordered his descendants not to drink wine. This order has been carried out. His descendants have not drunk any wine to this day, because they have obeyed their ancestor’s order. I have spoken to you again and again, but you have refused to listen to me.
I have sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again. They said, “Turn from your evil ways, do what is right, and don’t follow other gods in order to serve them. Then you will live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors.” However, you refused to listen to me or obey me.
You have done the same things the people did at Shiloh,’ ” declares the Lord. “ ‘Although I spoke to you again and again, you did not listen. When I called you, you did not answer.
He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the people of Israel. They are people from a nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have rebelled against me to this day.
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?’
That’s why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles. They will murder some of those prophets and apostles and persecute others.’