Oy , a sinful nation, a people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons dealing corruptly! They have abandoned Adonai. They have despised Israel’s Holy One. They have turned backwards.
Now it came to pass, when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and he had become strong, that he and all Israel with him forsook the Torah of Adonai.
He did what was right in the eyes of Adonai, just as his father Uzziah had done. But unlike his father, he did not enter into the Temple of Adonai. The people, however, acted corruptly.
So they will not be like their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart, whose spirit was not loyal to God.
Your princes are rebellious and friends with thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, nor does a widow’s case come to them.
I am sending it against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My fury I am commissioning it, to take spoil and plunder, to trample them down like mud in the streets.
“Oy , the rebellious children” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “Who carry out a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Ruach, so they may add sin to sin,
For thus says Adonai Elohim, the Holy One of Israel: “By repentance and rest you are saved, in quietness and trust is your strength— but you were not willing.”
Yet He is also wise. He brings disaster, and does not take back His words. He rises against the house of evildoers, against help for workers of iniquity.
You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away, a storm-wind will scatter them. But you will rejoice in Adonai. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw, and as chaff collapses into the flame, so their root will be like rot, and their blossom will go up like dust. For they have rejected the Torah of Adonai–Tzva’ot, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Yet they seek Me day to day and delight to know My ways, as if they were a nation that did right, and had not forsaken their God’s decree. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”
You have cast Me off” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “You keep going backward! So I stretch out My hand against you and will destroy you. I am weary with relenting.
“My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me —the spring of living water— and they dug their own cisterns— cracked cisterns that hold no water.
Your own wickedness will rebuke you and your backslidings will chide you. Know then and see how bad and bitter it is for you to forsake Adonai your God. Nor is fear of Me in you.” It is a declaration of the Lord Adonai-Tzva’ot.
You, generation, heed Adonai’s word! “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam. We won’t come to You any more’?
Thus says Adonai: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They walked after worthless things, becoming worthless themselves?
because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done to provoke Me—they, their kings, their princes, their kohanim, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Summon archers to Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around, let no one there escape. Repay her for her deed. As all she has done, do to her. For she was arrogant against Adonai, against the Holy One of Israel.
You are your mother’s daughter, who despises her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite. Your father was an Amorite.
Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your Torah and has turned away—not obeying Your voice. “‘Therefore the curse and sworn judgment written in the Torah of Moses the servant of God has been poured out upon us, for we have sinned against Him.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Adonai said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break My covenant that I cut with them.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my physical body—for the sake of His body, Messiah’s community—I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Messiah.