“You who have abandoned Me,” declares Yahweh, “You keep going backward. So I will stretch out My hand against you and bring you to ruin; I am tired of relenting!
¶Alas, sinful nation, People heavy with iniquity, Seed of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh; They have spurned the Holy One of Israel; They have become estranged from Him.
So the word of Yahweh to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.
Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So Yahweh will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble, And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.
I will speak My judgments on them concerning all their evil, whereby they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.
I will shatter them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares Yahweh. “I will not spare nor show pity nor have compassion so as not to ruin them.” ’ ”
“For My people have done two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.
“Your own evil will chastise you, And your acts of faithlessness will reprove you; Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter For you to forsake Yahweh your God, And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares Lord Yahweh of hosts.
But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot prevail.
So Yahweh was no longer able to bear it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have done; thus your land has become a waste place, an object of horror, and an imprecation, without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
But I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary of holding it in. “Pour it out on the infants in the street And on the gathering of choice men together; For both husband and wife shall be captured, The aged with the one full of days.
“Their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together, For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh.
“Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evil on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not given heed to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also.
“As for you, do not pray for this people and do not lift up a cry of lamentation or prayer for them and do not intercede with Me, for I am not hearing you.
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward.
“But if the prophet is enticed to speak a word, it is I, Yahweh, who have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.
therefore, behold, I have stretched out My hand against you, and I will give you for plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish from the lands; I will destroy you. Thus you will know that I am Yahweh.”
and say to it, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, And I will stretch out My hand against you And make you a desolation and a desecration.
Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.
“So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,