Nor did they not cry to Me in their heart when they were wailing on their beds. For the sake of grain and new wine they slash themselves— they keep turning away from Me.
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.
Josiah removed all the abominations from the whole territory of Bnei-Yisrael and made all who were found in Israel to worship Adonai their God. All his days they did not turn away from following Adonai, the God of their fathers.
They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. “The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”
“I struck you with blight and mildew. Your many gardens and vineyards, your fig-trees and olive trees the locust has devoured— yet you have not returned to Me,” declares Adonai.
So Adonai says, “Since these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, yet their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a mitzvah taught by men.
If only I had a travelers’ lodging place in the wilderness, then I might leave my people and get away from them! For they are all adulterers, a bunch of traitors.
Judah has dealt treacherously, an abomination done in Israel, even in Jerusalem! For Judah has defiled Adonai’s Sanctuary, which He loves, and married the daughter of a foreign god.