and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink; they are confused with wine; they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision; they stumble in giving judgment.
Thus says the Lord: Where is your mother’s bill of divorce with which I dismissed her? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? No, because of your sins you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was dismissed.
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
and say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me; and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Its rulers give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.”
Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?”