And יהוה smelled a soothing fragrance, and יהוה said in His heart, “Never again shall I curse the ground because of man, although the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again smite all living creatures, as I have done,
Although a sinner is doing evil a hundred times, and his life is prolonged, yet I know that there is good to those who fear Elohim, who fear before Him.
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one event to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are filled with evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and then – to the dead!
‘This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and walk after other mighty ones to serve them and to bow themselves to them, is like this girdle which is completely useless.
“Is this man Konyahu a despised broken pot, or an undesirable vessel? Why are they hurled out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know?
“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My laws and did not guard them. Turn back to Me, and I shall turn back to you,” said יהוה of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what shall we turn back?’
“And it shall be, when he hears the words of this curse, that he should bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,’ in order to add drunkenness to thirst.
And it came to be, when the ruler was dead, that they would turn back and do more corruptly than their fathers, to go after other mighty ones, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not refrain from their practices and from their stubborn way.
“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of יהוה, He also does reject you as sovereign.”