I hear the sound of voices echoing from the barren hills, the bitter weeping of the sons of Israel pleading for mercy because they lost their moral way and have forgotten Yahweh their God.
God designed us to feel remorse over sin in order to produce repentance that leads to victory. This leaves us with no regrets. But the sorrow of the world works death.
They will return praying with tears as I lead them home. I will guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
“Look up to the barren heights and carefully consider: Is there any place where you have not offered yourself as a prostitute? You have sat by the roadside waiting for lovers, sitting like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
For you have ignored and forgotten the God who saves you and have not remembered your Rock of Safety. So what do you do? You cultivate your beautiful gardens and plant imported vines.
The people of Dibon went to their temple to weep; they went up to their high places to lament. Moab wails with sorrow over what happened to Mount Nebo and Mount Medeba. Humiliated, every head is shaved bald and every beard cut off.
“ ‘And so, Lord Yahweh says: Because you have forgotten me and have turned your back on me, you too will have to bear the consequences of your outrageous, depraved sexual immorality.’ ”
“Why were you so afraid of them that you told lies and did not remember me or even care what I thought? Is it because I have been patient and long silent that you no longer fear me?
“People of Jerusalem, cut off your long hair and throw it away, and raise your song of mourning on the hilltops, for Yahweh has rejected and abandoned the generation of his fury.
But my people have forgotten me and burn incense to gods who are nothing, who make my people stumble in their ways. They no longer follow the ways of blessing they knew before but have followed paths that lead them nowhere.