"How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did Zeboiim? My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong.

So now my friend says, "You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me.

Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?

The LORD says, "Israel, I wanted to accept you as my child and give you a delightful land, the most beautiful land in all the world. I wanted you to call me father and never again turn away from me.

The LORD asked, "Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.

Shouldn't I punish them for these things and take revenge on a nation such as this?

But you people! You are stubborn and rebellious; you have turned aside and left me.

Because of this the LORD Almighty says, "I will refine my people like metal and put them to the test. My people have done evil--- what else can I do with them?

So he said to his gardener, 'Look, for three years I have been coming here looking for figs on this fig tree, and I haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it go on using up the soil?'

Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down.' "

He came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it,

saying, "If you only knew today what is needed for peace! But now you cannot see it!

Whenever the LORD gave Israel a leader, the LORD would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The LORD would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression.

But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways.

Whenever he killed some of them, the rest would turn to him; they would repent and pray earnestly to him.

But their words were all lies; nothing they said was sincere.

Then his people believed his promises and sang praises to him.

But they quickly forgot what he had done and acted without waiting for his advice.

And after all this, Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, only pretended to return to me; she was not sincere. I, the LORD, have spoken."

Just a few days ago you changed your minds and did what pleased me. All of you agreed to set all Israelites free, and you made a covenant in my presence, in the Temple where I am worshiped.

But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once.

If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.

What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: "A dog goes back to what it has vomited" and "A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud."

And so these people will disappear like morning mist, like the dew that vanishes early in the day. They will be like chaff which the wind blows from the threshing place, like smoke from a chimney.