I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been a skilled speaker. Even now, after talking to you, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and can’t find the best words.”
We hear songs from every part of the earth praising God, the Righteous One. But I said, “I am dying! I am dying! How terrible it will be for me! Traitors turn against people; with their dishonesty, they turn against people.”
The Lord says: “These people worship me with their mouths, and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is based on nothing but human rules.
With your hands you have killed others, and with your fingers you have done wrong. With your lips you have lied, and with your tongue you say evil things.
All of us are dirty with sin. All the right things we have done are like filthy pieces of cloth. All of us are like dead leaves, and our sins, like the wind, have carried us away.
I will make Babylon’s rulers and wise men drunk, and her governors, officers, and soldiers, too. Then they will sleep forever and never wake up,” says the King, whose name is the Lord All-Powerful.
“Human, you are living among a people who refuse to obey. They have eyes to see, but they do not see, and they have ears to hear, but they do not hear, because they are a people who refuse to obey.
So they come to you in crowds as if they were really ready to listen. They sit in front of you as if they were my people and hear your words, but they will not obey them. With their mouths they tell me they love me, but their hearts desire their selfish profits.
While I was saying these things in my prayer to the Lord, my God, confessing my sins and the sins of the people of Israel and praying for God’s holy hill,
I hear these things, and my body trembles; my lips tremble when I hear the sound. My bones feel weak, and my legs shake. But I will wait patiently for the day of disaster that will come to the people who attack us.