Then God said, "Mortal man, go to the people of Israel and say to them whatever I tell you to say.

If I sent you to great nations that spoke difficult languages you didn't understand, they would listen to you.

Now I will make you as stubborn and as tough as they are.

The LORD, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn his people, because he wanted to spare them and the Temple.

But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the LORD's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

Then I heard the Lord say, "Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?" I answered, "I will go! Send me!"

Then he said to me, "Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say.

(SEE 7:1)

"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the LORD has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention.

They told you to turn from your wicked way of life and from the evil things you are doing, so that you could go on living in the land that the LORD gave you and your ancestors as a permanent possession.

But the LORD himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

the LORD said to me, "Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything.

The LORD told me to say to the people, "I, the LORD, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you,

If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

"Get a scroll and write on it everything that I have told you about Israel and Judah and all the nations. Write everything that I have told you from the time I first spoke to you, when Josiah was king, up to the present.

When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest.

Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully.

and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you."

Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, "How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!"

The LORD spoke to me again.

Tell Jerusalem what the Sovereign LORD is saying to her: "You were born in the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.

No one took enough pity on you to do any of these things for you. When you were born, no one loved you. You were thrown out in an open field.

I made you grow like a healthy plant. You grew strong and tall and became a young woman. Your breasts were well-formed, and your hair had grown, but you were naked.

"Then I took water and washed the blood off you. I rubbed olive oil on your skin.

I put jewels on you---bracelets and necklaces.

You had ornaments of gold and silver, and you always wore clothes of embroidered linen and silk. You ate bread made from the best flour, and had honey and olive oil to eat. Your beauty was dazzling, and you became a queen.

"But you took advantage of your beauty and fame to sleep with everyone who came along.

You took the silver and gold jewelry that I had given you, used it to make male images, and committed adultery with them.

I gave you food---the best flour, olive oil, and honey---but you offered it as a sacrifice to win the favor of idols." This is what the Sovereign LORD says.

without taking my children and sacrificing them to idols?

The Sovereign LORD said, "You are doomed! Doomed! You did all that evil, and then

You dragged your beauty through the mud. You offered yourself to everyone who came by, and you were more of a prostitute every day.

"Now I have raised my hand to punish you and to take away your share of my blessing. I have handed you over to the Philistines, who hate you and are disgusted with your immoral actions.

You were also a prostitute for the Babylonians, that nation of merchants, but they didn't satisfy you either."

On every street you built places to worship idols and practice prostitution. But you are not out for money like a common prostitute.

A prostitute is paid, but you gave presents to all your lovers and bribed them to come from everywhere to sleep with you.

Now then, Jerusalem, you whore! Hear what the LORD is saying.

Because of this I will bring all your former lovers together---the ones you liked and the ones you hated. I will bring them around you in a circle, and then I will strip off your clothes and let them see you naked.

I will put you in their power, and they will tear down the places where you engage in prostitution and worship idols. They will take away your clothes and jewels and leave you completely naked.

They will burn your houses down and let crowds of women see your punishment. I will make you stop being a prostitute and make you stop giving gifts to your lovers.

You have forgotten how I treated you when you were young, and you have made me angry by all the things you did. That is why I have made you pay for them all. Why did you add sexual immorality to all the other disgusting things you did?" The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

You really are your mother's daughter. She detested her husband and her children. You are like your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. You and your sister cities had a Hittite mother and an Amorite father.

Were you satisfied to follow in their footsteps and copy their disgusting actions? No, in only a little while you were acting worse than they were in everything you did.

She and her daughters were proud because they had plenty to eat and lived in peace and quiet, but they did not take care of the poor and the underprivileged.

"Samaria did not sin half as much as you have. You have acted more disgustingly than she ever did. Your corruption makes your sisters look innocent by comparison.

The LORD said to Jerusalem, "I will make them prosperous again---Sodom and her villages and Samaria and her villages. Yes, I will make you prosperous too.

They will become prosperous again, and you and your villages will also be restored.

and before the evil you did had been exposed? Now you are just like her---a joke to the Edomites, the Philistines, and your other neighbors who hate you.

The Sovereign LORD says, "I will treat you the way you deserve, because you ignored your promises and broke the covenant.

You will remember how you have acted, and be ashamed of it when you get your older sister and your younger sister back. I will let them be like daughters to you, even though this was not part of my covenant with you.

I will forgive all the wrongs you have done, but you will remember them and be too ashamed to open your mouth." The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

It was the tenth day of the fifth month of the seventh year of our exile. Some of the leaders of the Israelite community came to consult me about the LORD's will, and they sat down in front of me.

"Mortal man," he said, "speak to these leaders and tell them that the Sovereign LORD is saying: You have come to ask my will, have you? As surely as I am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken.

Tell them what I am saying. When I chose Israel, I made them a promise. I revealed myself to them in Egypt and told them: I am the LORD your God.

I told them to throw away the disgusting idols they loved and not to make themselves unclean with the false gods of Egypt, because I am the LORD their God.

But I did not, since that would have brought dishonor to my name, for in the presence of the people among whom they were living I had announced to Israel that I was going to lead them out of Egypt.

I gave them my commands and taught them my laws, which bring life to anyone who obeys them.

But even in the desert they defied me. They broke my laws and rejected my commands, which bring life to anyone who obeys them. They completely profaned the Sabbath. I was ready to let them feel the force of my anger there in the desert and to destroy them.

So I made a vow in the desert that I would not take them to the land I had given them, a rich and fertile land, the finest land of all.

"But then I took pity on them. I decided not to kill them there in the desert.

I am the LORD your God. Obey my laws and my commands.

"But that generation also defied me. They broke my laws and did not keep my commands, which bring life to anyone who obeys them. They profaned the Sabbath. I was ready to let them feel the force of my anger there in the desert and to kill them all.

So I made another vow in the desert. I vowed that I would scatter them all over the world.

"Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not bring life.

"Now then, mortal man, tell the Israelites what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying to them. This is another way their ancestors insulted me by their unfaithfulness.

I asked them: What are these high places where you go? So they have been called 'High Places' ever since.

Even today you offer the same gifts and defile yourselves with the same idols by sacrificing your children to them in the fire. And then you Israelites still come to ask what my will is! As surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God, I will not let you ask me anything.

"As surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God, I warn you that in my anger I will rule over you with a strong hand, with all my power.

I will bring you into the 'Desert of the Nations,' and there I will condemn you to your face.

"I will take firm control of you and make you obey my covenant.

The Sovereign LORD says, "And now, all you Israelites, suit yourselves! Go on and serve your idols! But I warn you that after this you will have to obey me and stop dishonoring my holy name by offering gifts to your idols.

After I bring you out of the countries where you have been scattered and gather you together, I will accept the sacrifices that you burn, and the nations will see that I am holy.

Then you will remember all the disgraceful things you did and how you defiled yourselves. You will be disgusted with yourselves because of all the evil things you did.

The LORD spoke to me.

Tell the southern forest to hear what the Sovereign LORD is saying: Look! I am starting a fire, and it will burn up every tree in you, whether green or dry. Nothing will be able to put it out. It will spread from south to north, and everyone will feel the heat of the flames.

But I protested, "Sovereign LORD, don't make me do it! Everyone is already complaining that I always speak in riddles."

The LORD spoke to me.

When they were young, living in Egypt, they lost their virginity and became prostitutes.

Although she was mine, Oholah continued to be a prostitute and was full of lust for her lovers from Assyria.

She was the whore for all the Assyrian officers, and her lust led her to defile herself by worshiping Assyrian idols.

So I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers whom she wanted so much.

"Even though her sister Oholibah saw this, she was wilder and more of a prostitute than Oholah had ever been.

I saw that she was completely immoral, that the second sister was as bad as the first.

(SEE 23:14)

The Babylonians came to have sex with her. They used her and defiled her so much that finally she became disgusted with them.

She became more of a prostitute than ever, acting the way she did as a young woman, when she was a prostitute in Egypt.

(Oholibah, you wanted to repeat the immorality you were guilty of as a young woman in Egypt, where men played with your breasts and you lost your virginity.)

I will bring all the Babylonians and Chaldeans, men from Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians. I will gather all those handsome young noblemen and officers, all those important officials and high-ranking cavalry officers.

Because I am angry with you, I will let them deal with you in their anger. They will cut off your nose and your ears and kill your children. Yes, they will take your sons and daughters from you and burn them alive.

I will put a stop to your lust and to the obscenities you have committed ever since you were in Egypt. You won't look at any more idols or think about Egypt any more."

And because they hate you, they will take away everything you have worked for and leave you stripped naked, exposed like a prostitute. Your lust and your prostitution

You followed in your sister's footsteps, and so I will give you the same cup of punishment to drink."

It will make you miserable and drunk, that cup of fear and ruin, your sister Samaria's cup.

Now this is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you will suffer for your lust and your prostitution."

They have committed adultery and murder---adultery with idols and murder of the children they bore me. They sacrificed my children to their idols.

The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!

They would sit on a beautiful couch, and in front of them they would have a table covered with good things, including the incense and the olive oil that I had given them.

And I said to myself that they were using as a prostitute a woman worn out by adultery.

Righteous men will condemn them on the charge of adultery and murder, because they practice adultery and their hands are stained with blood."

Let the mob stone them and attack them with swords, kill their children, and burn down their houses.

And you two sisters---I will punish you for your immorality and your sin of worshiping idols. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD."

Instead, I warned the young people among them: Do not keep the laws your ancestors made; do not follow their customs or defile yourselves with their idols.

Make the Sabbath a holy day, so that it will be a sign of the covenant we made, and will remind you that I am the LORD your God.

But I did not, since that would have brought dishonor to my name among the nations which had seen me bring Israel out of Egypt.

I did this because they had rejected my commands, broken my laws, profaned the Sabbath, and worshiped the same idols their ancestors had served.

I let them defile themselves with their own offerings, and I let them sacrifice their first-born sons. This was to punish them and show them that I am the LORD.

I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burned and by the wine they brought as offerings.

Now tell the Israelites what I am saying: Why must you commit the same sins your ancestors did and go running after their idols?

He and Aaron assembled the whole community in front of the rock, and Moses said, "Listen, you rebels! Do we have to get water out of this rock for you?"

The LORD became angry with the people and made them wander in the wilderness forty years until that whole generation that had displeased him was dead.

And now you have taken your ancestors' place, a new generation of sinful people ready to bring down the fierce anger of the LORD on Israel again.

Ever since I have known you, you have rebelled against the LORD.

Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and do not pay any attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of this people.

and the LORD said, "Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king.

Ever since I brought them out of Egypt, they have turned away from me and worshiped other gods; and now they are doing to you what they have always done to me.

They sacrificed their sons and daughters as burnt offerings to pagan gods; they consulted mediums and fortunetellers, and they devoted themselves completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight, and so aroused his anger.

But even the people of Judah did not obey the laws of the LORD their God; they imitated the customs adopted by the people of Israel.

From the days of our ancestors until now, we, your people, have sinned greatly. Because of our sins we, our kings, and our priests have fallen into the hands of foreign kings, and we have been slaughtered, robbed, and carried away as prisoners. We have been totally disgraced, as we still are today.

But our ancestors grew proud and stubborn and refused to obey your commands.

They made an idol in the shape of a bull-calf and said it was the god who led them from Egypt! How much they insulted you, LORD!

You have done right to punish us; you have been faithful, even though we have sinned.

With your blessing, kings ruled your people when they lived in the broad, fertile land you gave them; but they failed to turn from sin and serve you.

There in the desert they were jealous of Moses and of Aaron, the LORD's holy servant.

fire came down on their followers and burned up those wicked people.

they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an animal that eats grass.

At the springs of Meribah the people made the LORD angry, and Moses was in trouble on their account.

They did not kill the heathen, as the LORD had commanded them to do,

God's people worshiped idols, and this caused their destruction.

They killed those innocent children, and the land was defiled by those murders.

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

We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God; we have never obeyed his commands."

Then tell them that the LORD has said, 'Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

"As for the sacrifices which you and your ancestors, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land offered in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem---do you think that the LORD did not know about them or that he forgot them?

"We have sinned, we have been evil, we have done wrong. We have rejected what you commanded us to do and have turned away from what you showed us was right.

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.

You are merciful and forgiving, although we have rebelled against you.

All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said. We sinned against you, and so you brought on us the curses that are written in the Law of Moses, your servant.

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.

"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!