“When you raise your arms to pray to me, I will refuse to look at you. You will say more and more prayers, but I will refuse to listen because your hands are covered with blood.
So now, the Lord GOD really will speak. He says, “You told lies. You saw visions that were not true. So now I am against you!” This is what the Lord GOD said.
You have blood on your hands! It is the blood of poor, innocent people. You did not catch them breaking into your house. You killed them for no reason!
“I punished you people of Judah, but it did not help. You did not come back when you were punished. With your swords you killed the prophets who came to you. Like a dangerous lion, you killed the prophets.”
Look at Jerusalem. She was a faithful city. What made her become like a prostitute? In the past, Jerusalem was filled with justice, and goodness should live there now. Instead, there are murderers.
By this I mean that all the faithful people are gone. There are no good people left. Everyone is planning to kill someone. Everyone is trying to trap their brother.
So the Lord GOD says, “But I promise by my own life that I will let death have you. Death will chase you. You did not hate killing people, so death will chase you.
He said, “The family of Israel and Judah has committed many terrible sins! People are being murdered everywhere in this country, and the city is filled with crime. That is because the people say to themselves, ‘The Lord has left this country. The Lord cannot see what we are doing.’
Those teachings come through people who tell lies and trick others. These evil people cannot see what is right and what is wrong. It is like their conscience has been destroyed with a hot iron.
Judas said, “I sinned. I handed over to you an innocent man to be killed.” The Jewish leaders answered, “We don’t care! That’s a problem for you, not us.”
“Jehoiakim, your eyes look only for what benefits yourself. You are always thinking about getting more for yourself. You are willing to kill innocent people. You are willing to steal things from other people.”
This will happen because Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen. They turned against the Lord. They said and did things against him, right in front of his glorious eyes.
I was frightened and said, “Oh, no! I will be destroyed. I am not pure enough to speak to God, and I live among people who are not pure enough to speak to him. But I have seen the King, the Lord All-Powerful.”
You have said, “We have made an agreement with death. We have a contract with death. So we will not be punished. Punishment will pass us without hurting us. We will hide behind our tricks and lies.”
Someone like that is deceived. They don’t know what they are doing. They cannot save themselves, and they will not admit, “This statue I am holding is a lie!”
We rebelled against the Lord and lied to him. We turned away from our God and left him. We planned to hurt others and to rebel against God. From hearts filled with lies, we talked about it and made our plans.
If only I had a place in the desert— a house where travelers spend the night— so I could leave my people. I could go away from them, because they are all unfaithful to God. They have all turned against him.
So the Lord All-Powerful says, “A worker heats metal in a fire to test it and see if it is pure. I will test the people of Judah like that. I have no other choice. My people have sinned.