No one turns to you in prayer; no one goes to you for help. You have hidden yourself from us and have abandoned us because of our sins.

"Don't they know?" asks the LORD. "Are all these evildoers ignorant? They live by robbing my people, and they never pray to me."

Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you, on the people who do not pray to you.

Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you. They have killed your people; they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins.

giving us all the punishment described in the Law of Moses. But even now, O LORD our God, we have not tried to please you by turning from our sins or by following your truth.

The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the LORD their God.

But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done.

They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are!

Return to the LORD your God, people of Israel. Your sin has made you stumble and fall.

Return to the LORD, and let this prayer be your offering to him: "Forgive all our sins and accept our prayer, and we will praise you as we have promised.

You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it.

And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.

The wicked tell God to leave them alone; they don't want to know his will for their lives.

They think there is no need to serve God nor any advantage in praying to him.

When trouble comes, will God hear their cries?

They should have desired the joy he gives; they should have constantly prayed to him.

The LORD says: "What accusation did your ancestors bring against me? What made them turn away from me? They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves.

No other nation has ever changed its gods, even though they were not real. But my people have exchanged me, the God who has brought them honor, for gods that can do nothing for them.

for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

The LORD says, "My people, what have I done to you? How have I been a burden to you? Answer me.

You say, 'How tired we are of all this!' and you turn up your nose at me. As your offering to me you bring a stolen animal or one that is lame or sick. Do you think I will accept that from you?

You have said, 'It's useless to serve God. What's the use of doing what he says or of trying to show the LORD Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?

Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more.

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.