Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for four hundred years.
Jerusalem says: “Look, Lord, and see to whom you have done this. Women eat their own babies, the children they have cared for. Priests and prophets are killed in the Temple of the Lord.
“You invited terrors to come against me on every side, as if you were inviting them to a feast. No one escaped or remained alive on the day of the Lord’s anger. My enemy has killed those I cared for and brought up.”
Say, ‘This is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your beginnings and your ancestors were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.
“ ‘But in the desert Israel turned against me. They did not follow my rules, and they rejected my laws, by which people will live if they obey them. They dishonored my Sabbaths. Then I decided to pour out my anger against them and destroy them in the desert.
“ ‘But they turned against me and refused to listen to me. They did not throw away the hateful idols which they saw and liked; they did not give up the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out my anger against them while they were still in Egypt.
If she refuses, I will strip her naked and leave her bare like the day she was born. I will make her dry like a desert, like a land without water, and I will kill her with thirst.
Their mother has acted like a prostitute; the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully. She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers, who give me my food and water, wool and flax, wine and olive oil.’
and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough.
Then Joshua said to all the people, “Here’s what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you: ‘A long time ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates River. Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, worshiped other gods.