if you don’t mistreat the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, if you don’t shed innocent blood in this land, if you stop your self-destructive ways of chasing after other gods,
For I, Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, planted you and have decreed disaster against you because of the evil of the people of Israel and the people of Judah. You have provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal.”
The people of Judah worship as many gods as they have cities. They have as many altars to burn incense to that shameful one, Baal, as they have streets in Jerusalem.
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the despicable, the murderers, the perverts, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all deceivers, they will find their place in the lake of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
As for his father, because he practiced fraud, cheated, and robbed others, doing what is wrong among his people, he will most certainly die in his guilt.
This disaster came to your people because of their evil deeds; they have worshiped foreign gods, which they have previously known nothing about nor have their ancestors. They have brought them offerings and provoked my anger.
The attacking army of Babylon will seize this city, set it on fire, and burn it to the ground. The people offered sacrifices to Baal on those same rooftops and poured out drink offerings to other idols, provoking my anger.
These evil ones refuse to hear my words, they stubbornly follow the inclinations of their own hearts, and they follow other gods to serve and worship them. So then, they will all become like this worthless, rotten undergarment.
Stop bringing your meaningless offerings. Your burning incense stinks! Your sin-stained celebrations, your new moon festivals, Sabbaths, your various pious meetings—I can’t stand them!
Yes, daily they seem to seek me, pretending that they delight to know my ways, as though they were a nation that does what is right and had not rejected the law of their God. They ask me to show them the right way, acting as though they are eager to be close to me.
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.
“On what basis can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not real. Even though I satisfied my people to the full, they committed adultery, beating a path to a whorehouse.
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.
For they, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have defiled this place and forsaken me. They have sacrificed here to strange gods, whom they never knew, and have filled this place with the blood of innocent people.
Why do you keep provoking my wrath by offering incense to Egyptian gods where you have settled? Are you bent on your own destruction? Don’t you realize you will become a curse and a laughingstock for all the nations of the earth?
“For as surely as I live, I, Lord Yahweh, declare: because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your horrible and loathsome practices, I will withdraw from you and will not even glance on you with pity or spare you.
The same day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they came into my sanctuary and made it unfit for worship. Yes, this is what they have done in my own house!
“Say to the Israelites in exile, ‘Lord Yahweh says to you: Will you defile yourselves in the same way your ancestors did and act like a prostitute with your idol worship?