Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?

(SEE 7:1)

"Change the way you are living and stop doing the things you are doing. Be fair in your treatment of one another.

If you change, I will let you go on living here in the land which I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession.

Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

We turned away from you, but soon we wanted to return. After you had punished us, we hung our heads in grief. We were ashamed and disgraced because we sinned when we were young.'

They turned their backs on me; and though I kept on teaching them, they would not listen and learn.

(SEE 35:12)

I have continued to send you all my servants the prophets, and they have told you to give up your evil ways and to do what is right. They warned you not to worship and serve other gods, so that you could go on living in the land that I gave you and your ancestors. But you would not listen to me or pay any attention to me.

They fail to see why they were defeated; they cannot understand what happened.

Now listen to this warning, you kings; learn this lesson, you rulers of the world:

You refuse to let me correct you; you reject my commands.

LORD, how happy are those you instruct, the ones to whom you teach your law!

Always remember what you have learned. Your education is your life---guard it well.

I thought that then my people would have reverence for me and accept my discipline, that they would never forget the lesson I taught them. But soon they were behaving as badly as ever.

She exposed herself publicly and let everyone know she was a whore. I was as disgusted with her as I had been with her sister.

But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them."

I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month.

Then I said to the flock, "I will not be your shepherd any longer. Let those die who are to die. Let those be destroyed who are to be destroyed. Those who are left will destroy one another."

They have roared at him like lions; they have made his land a desert, and his towns lie in ruins, completely abandoned.

And so I, the Sovereign LORD, will pour out my fierce anger on this Temple. I will pour it out on people and animals alike, and even on the trees and the crops. My anger will be like a fire that no one can put out.

The land will become a desert. In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the happy sounds of wedding feasts.

The LORD says, "I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins, a place where jackals live; the cities of Judah will become a desert, a place where no one lives."

Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.