Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
Ah sinful nation, a people burdened with iniquity, a generation of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.
Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help; and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for above all the glory shall be a protection.
And when they shall say to you, Seek after those who have familiar spirits, and wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek after their God? for the living should they go to the dead?
And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
And he said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even until this very day.
And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look to them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
And now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images from their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
Woe to them! for they have fled from me: destruction to them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you store up for yourself wrath for the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
And it comes to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
Remember, and forget not, how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness: from the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.