My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray. Turning around in the mountains, they went from mountain to hill, and forgot their resting place.
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.”
Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a massive rock in a weary land.
Give glory to Adonai your God, before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble on mountains at dusk. When you look for light, He turns it into the shadow of death, and turns it into deep darkness.
“Indeed, long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve!’ Instead, on every high hill and under every green tree you sprawled out as a prostitute.
Then Adonai said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel did? She went up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there she committed adultery.
Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Yet again will there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a pasture of shepherds making their flocks lie down.
Israel is a scattered flock— lions have driven them away. First, Assyria’s king devoured him. This last one who broke his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Precisely because they have led My people astray saying, ‘Shalom’ when there is no shalom, they build a weak wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash.
I will shepherd them in a good pasture—their grazing place will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground. They will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
“I will seek the lost, bring back the stray, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. But the fat and the strong I will destroy—I will tend them with justice.