and that they may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are estranged and backward.
I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command, to seize the plunder, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. The overflowing scourge shall not come to us when it passes through, for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not from Me, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;
Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The words of Jonadab the son of Rekab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed, for to this day they drink none, but they obey their father’s commandment. However, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not obey Me.
And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,
You shall say to them: This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive correction. Truth has perished, and has been cut off from their mouth.
They bend their tongues like their bow; lies and not truth prevail upon the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the Lord.
He said: I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom there is no loyalty.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.”