LORD, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate the people of Zion? Why have you hurt us so badly that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace, but nothing good happened; we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

I will live among you in my sacred Tent, and I will never turn away from you.

"When the LORD saw this, he was angry and rejected his sons and daughters.

Do not banish me from your presence; do not take your holy spirit away from me.

So the LORD was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.

The Lord rejected his altar and deserted his holy Temple; He allowed the enemy to tear down its walls. They shouted in victory where once we had worshiped in joy.

The Sovereign LORD Almighty has given this solemn warning: "I hate the pride of the people of Israel; I despise their luxurious mansions. I will give their capital city and everything in it to the enemy."

My people cry out to me, 'Even though our sins accuse us, help us, LORD, as you have promised. We have turned away from you many times; we have sinned against you.

Help us, O God, and save us; rescue us and forgive our sins for the sake of your own honor.

Why should the nations ask us, "Where is your God?" Let us see you punish the nations for shedding the blood of your servants.

"Now then, give the Israelites the message that I, the Sovereign LORD, have for them: What I am going to do is not for the sake of you Israelites, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have disgraced in every country where you have gone.

When I demonstrate to the nations the holiness of my great name---the name you disgraced among them---then they will know that I am the LORD. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken. I will use you to show the nations that I am holy.

The Sovereign LORD said, "But now I will be merciful to Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel, and make them prosperous again. I will protect my holy name.

You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you.

"O Lord our God, you showed your power by bringing your people out of Egypt, and your power is still remembered. We have sinned; we have done wrong.

O God, hear my prayer and pleading. Restore your Temple, which has been destroyed; restore it so that everyone will know that you are God.

Lord, hear us. Lord, forgive us. Lord, listen to us, and act! In order that everyone will know that you are God, do not delay! This city and these people are yours."

He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus.

When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all nations will gather there to worship me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts tell them.

Our Temple is like a glorious throne, standing on a high mountain from the beginning.

Walk over these total ruins; our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.

They looked like woodsmen cutting down trees with their axes.

They wrecked your Temple and set it on fire; they desecrated the place where you are worshiped.

For their sake he remembered his covenant, and because of his great love he relented.

The enemies robbed her of all her treasures. She saw them enter the Temple itself, Where the LORD had forbidden Gentiles to go.

He smashed to pieces the Temple where we worshiped him; He has put an end to holy days and Sabbaths. King and priest alike have felt the force of his anger.

The Lord rejected his altar and deserted his holy Temple; He allowed the enemy to tear down its walls. They shouted in victory where once we had worshiped in joy.

Look, O LORD! Why are you punishing us like this? Women are eating the bodies of the children they loved! Priests and prophets are being killed in the Temple itself !

Once they were proud of their beautiful jewels, but they used them to make disgusting idols. That is why the LORD has made their wealth repulsive to them.

I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.

to give you Israelites this message: You are proud of the strength of the Temple. You like to look at it and to visit it, but the LORD is going to profane it. And the younger members of your families who are left in Jerusalem will be killed in war.

"Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of their dead kings.

It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple.

Then I heard one angel ask another, "How long will these things that were seen in the vision continue? How long will an awful sin replace the daily sacrifices? How long will the army of heaven and the Temple be trampled on?"

Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.

But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the heathen, who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember the solemn promise you made to them to give them as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and to give their descendants all that land you promised would be their possession forever."

I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.

But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the LORD their God.

Remember your people, whom you chose for yourself long ago, whom you brought out of slavery to be your own tribe. Remember Mount Zion, where once you lived.

But remember, O LORD, that your enemies laugh at you, that they are godless and despise you.

Remember the covenant you made with us. There is violence in every dark corner of the land.

You have broken your covenant with your servant and thrown his crown in the dirt.

You have torn down the walls of his city and left his forts in ruins.

For their sake he remembered his covenant, and because of his great love he relented.

so do not be too angry with us or hold our sins against us forever. We are your people; be merciful to us.

and our Temple, the sacred and beautiful place where our ancestors praised you, has been destroyed by fire. All the places we loved are in ruins.

Then I took the stick called "Favor" and broke it, to cancel the covenant which the LORD had made with all the nations.

So the covenant was canceled on that day. Those who bought and sold the sheep were watching me, and they knew that the LORD was speaking through what I did.

He said he would show mercy to our ancestors and remember his sacred covenant.

But now, Jesus has been given priestly work which is superior to theirs, just as the covenant which he arranged between God and his people is a better one, because it is based on promises of better things.

But God finds fault with his people when he says, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will forgive their sins and will no longer remember their wrongs."