Alas, sinning nation, a people loaded with crookedness, a seed of evil-doers, sons acting corruptly! They have forsaken יהוה, they have provoked the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, they went backward.
And it came to be, when Reḥaḇ‛am had established the reign and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the Torah of יהוה, and all Yisra’ĕl with him.
And he did what was right in the eyes of יהוה, according to all that his father Uzziyahu had done. Only, he did not come into the Hĕḵal of יהוה. And the people continued to act corruptly.
“We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not guarded the commands, nor the laws, nor the right-rulings which You commanded Your servant Mosheh.
And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation which did not prepare its heart, Whose spirit was not steadfast to Ěl.
Your rulers are stubborn, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and runs after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow reach them.
“Against a defiled nation I send him, and against the people of My wrath I command him to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mud of the streets.
“You are not joined with them in the burial-place, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the seed of evil-doers never be mentioned.
“Woe to the stubborn children,” declares יהוה, “to make counsel, but not from Me, and to devise plans, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;
For thus said the Master יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “In returning and rest you are saved, in stillness and trust is your strength.” But you would not,
And He also is wise, and has brought evil, and has not turned aside His words. And He shall rise up against the house of evil-doers, and against the help of workers of wickedness.
“Whom have you reproached and reviled? And against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes in pride? Against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl!
“So that they see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of יהוה has done this, and the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl has created it.
who are saying, “Let Him hurry! Let Him hasten His work, so that we see it! And let the counsel of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl draw near and come, so that we know.”
Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, their root is as rottenness, and their blossom goes up like dust – because they have rejected the Torah of יהוה of hosts, and despised the Word of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
“Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the right-ruling of their Elohim. They ask of Me rulings of righteousness, they delight in drawing near to Elohim.
Therefore יהוה does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is defiled and evil, and every mouth speaks foolishness. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.
“You who have forsaken Me,” declares יהוה, “you have gone backward. Therefore I shall stretch out My hand against you and destroy you. I have been weary of relenting!
“For My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns, which do not hold water.
“Your own evil instructs you, and your backslidings reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter that you have forsaken יהוה your Elohim, and that My fear is not in you,” declares the Master יהוה of hosts.
“O generation, see the word of יהוה! Have I been a wilderness to Yisra’ĕl, Or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We have broken loose; we come to You no more’?
Thus said יהוה, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
because of all the evil of the children of Yisra’ĕl and the children of Yehuḏah, which they have done to provoke Me – they, their sovereigns, their heads, their priests, their prophets, and the men of Yehuḏah, and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
“Summon archers against Baḇel. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around, let no one escape. Repay her according to her work, do to her according to all she has done. For she has been proud against יהוה, against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
“For neither Yisra’ĕl nor Yehuḏah is widowed by his Elohim, יהוה of hosts, though their land has been filled with sin against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.”
“You are your mother’s daughter, who despises her husband and her children. And you are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Ḥittite and your father an Amorite.
“And all Yisra’ĕl have transgressed Your Torah, and turned aside, so as not to obey Your voice. So the curse and the oath written in the Torah of Mosheh the servant of Elohim have been poured out on us, for we have sinned against Him.
And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “Brood of adders! Who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
“And it shall be said, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of יהוה Elohim of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim.
And יהוה said to Mosheh, “See, you are about to sleep with your fathers. And this people shall rise and whore after the mighty ones of the strangers of the land into the midst of which they shall enter, and forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the assembly,