For you know that your lives were ransomed once and for all from the empty and futile way of life handed down from generation to generation. It was not a ransom payment of silver and gold, which eventually perishes,
Throughout human history the fingerprints of God were upon them, yet they refused to honor him as God or even be thankful for his kindness. Instead, they entertained corrupt and foolish thoughts about what God was like. This left them with nothing but misguided hearts, steeped in moral darkness.
“Come together! Assemble yourselves! Draw near, you refugees from among the nations. Those who parade their powerless wooden idols have no revelation-knowledge. They keep on praying to gods who cannot save them.
He declares to you: “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that they would run so far away from me? They left me to follow worthless idols and themselves became worthless!
I will pass sentence against the people of Jerusalem and Judah for all their wickedness in deserting me. They have sacrificed to other gods and worshiped the works of their hands.
Can any of the false gods of foreign nations give us rain? Can the skies by themselves give showers? Only you can, O Yahweh, our God! So, we place all our hope in you, for only you accomplish all these things.
Yahweh, you are my strength and my stronghold, my sanctuary in a time of trouble. Nations will stream toward you from the ends of the earth and say: “The gods of our ancestors are nothing but frauds, worthless idols that could do nothing for them.