Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that it filled the length and breadth of Jerusalem, in addition to the sin he caused Judah to commit by doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
For slaves we are, but in our slavery our God has not abandoned us; rather, he has turned the good will of the kings of Persia toward us. Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins, and has granted us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
Have you really cast Judah off? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
I will at once repay them double for their crime and their sin because they profaned my land with the corpses of their detestable idols, and filled my heritage with their abominations.
All because they have forsaken me and profaned this place by burning incense to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors knew; and because the kings of Judah have filled this place with innocent blood,
Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts against the prophets: Look, I will give them wormwood to eat, and poisoned water to drink; For from Jerusalem’s prophets ungodliness has gone forth into the whole land.
Thus says the Lord: If the heavens on high could be measured, or the foundations below the earth be explored, Then would I reject all the offspring of Israel because of all they have done—oracle of the Lord. Jerusalem Rebuilt.
You, Jacob my servant, must not fear—oracle of the Lord— for I am with you; I will make an end of all the nations to which I have driven you, But of you I will not make an end: I will chastise you as you deserve, I cannot let you go unpunished.
In those days, at that time—oracle of the Lord: The guilt of Israel may be sought, but it no longer exists, the sin of Judah, but it can no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
He said: Do you see, son of man? Are the abominable things the house of Judah has done here so slight that they should also fill the land with violence, provoking me again and again? Now they are putting the branch to my nose!
He answered me: The guilt of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is too great to measure; the land is filled with bloodshed, the city with lawlessness. They think that the Lord has abandoned the land, that he does not see them.
The number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor counted. Instead of being told, “You are Not-My-People,” They will be called, “Children of the living God.”
Hear the word of the Lord, Israelites, for the Lord has a dispute with the inhabitants of the land: There is no fidelity, no loyalty, no knowledge of God in the land.
Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but instead delights in mercy,
On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a brazier of fire in the woodland and like a burning torch among sheaves, and they will devour right and left all the surrounding peoples; but Jerusalem will again inhabit its own place.
On that day the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David on that day; and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them.
For thus says the Lord of hosts after the Lord’s glory had sent me, concerning the nations that have plundered you: Whoever strikes you strikes me directly in the eye.