Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to another—in addition to his sin which he made Judah sin, in doing what was evil in Adonai’s eyes.
Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, reviving us in order to restore the House of our God, to raise up its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for shalom, but nothing good came, and for a time of healing, but suddenly, terror!
Why are You like a man overcome, like a champion who cannot save? Yet you, Adonai, are in our midst, and we are called by Your Name. Do not forsake us!
First I will repay them double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned My land, and they have filled My possession with the carcasses of their vile things and their abominations.”
For they have forsaken Me and have alienated this place, by burning sacrifices in it to other gods, which neither they nor their forefathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocents.
Therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot concerning the prophets: “I myself will feed them wormwood and make them drink poisoned water. For from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has spread into all the land.”
Fear not, Jacob My servant” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you. I will discipline you with justice, but will not utterly destroy you.”
In those days and in that time” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “Israel’s guilt will be sought, but there will be none, also for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found. For I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it too light a thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations they practice here, that they must also fill the land with violence and provoke Me still more? Look, they are putting the twig to My nose!
He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great; the land is full of blood and the city is full of corruption. For they say, ‘Adonai has forsaken the land, Adonai does not see!’
“Yet the number of Bnei-Yisrael will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. Instead of ‘You are not My people’ being said to them, they will be called ‘Children of the living God.’
Hear the word of Adonai, Bnei-Yisrael! For Adonai has a dispute with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, no covenant loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land.
Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
“In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a burning torch among sheaves. They will devour on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, yet Jerusalem will remain in her place, in Jerusalem.
In that day Adonai will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the weakest among them that day will be like David and the house of David will be like God—like the angel of Adonai before them.