"Never forget how you made the LORD your God angry in the desert. From the day that you left Egypt until the day you arrived here, you have rebelled against him.

I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets on which was written the covenant that the LORD had made with you. I stayed there forty days and nights and did not eat or drink anything.

Yes, after those forty days and nights the LORD gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written the covenant.

"The LORD also said to me, 'I know how stubborn these people are.

"So I turned and went down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets on which the covenant was written. Flames of fire were coming from the mountain.

So there in front of you I threw the stone tablets down and broke them to pieces.

I was afraid of the LORD's fierce anger, because he was furious enough to destroy you; but once again the LORD listened to me.

I took that sinful thing that you had made---that metal bull-calf---and threw it into the fire. Then I broke it in pieces, ground it to dust, and threw the dust into the stream that flowed down the mountain.

I will take them into this rich and fertile land, as I promised their ancestors. There they will have all the food they want, and they will live comfortably. But they will turn away and worship other gods. They will reject me and break my covenant,

I know how stubborn and rebellious they are. They have rebelled against the LORD during my lifetime, and they will rebel even more after I am dead.

I know that after my death the people will become wicked and reject what I have taught them. And in time to come they will meet with disaster, because they will have made the LORD angry by doing what he has forbidden."

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

They refused to obey; they forgot all you did; they forgot the miracles you had performed. In their pride they chose a leader to take them back to slavery in Egypt. But you are a God who forgives; you are gracious and loving, slow to be angry. Your mercy is great; you did not forsake them.

"But your people rebelled and disobeyed you; they turned their backs on your Law. They killed the prophets who warned them, who told them to turn back to you. They insulted you time after time,

When peace returned, they sinned again, and again you let their enemies conquer them. Yet when they repented and asked you to save them, in heaven you heard, and time after time you rescued them in your great mercy.

Year after year you patiently warned them. You inspired your prophets to speak, but your people were deaf, so you let them be conquered by other nations.

They will not be like their ancestors, a rebellious and disobedient people, whose trust in God was never firm and who did not remain faithful to him.

They did not keep their covenant with God; they refused to obey his law.

But they defied me and refused to listen. They did not throw away their disgusting idols or give up the Egyptian gods. I was ready to let them feel the full force of my anger there in Egypt.

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.

"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.

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.

You yourselves admit, then, that you approve of what your ancestors did; they murdered the prophets, and you build their tombs.

So the people of this time will be punished for the murder of all the prophets killed since the creation of the world,

"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!

Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

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.

There you will look for the LORD your God, and if you search for him with all your heart, you will find him.

He is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant that he himself made with your ancestors.

"I have now given you a choice between a blessing and a curse. When all these things have happened to you, and you are living among the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you, you will remember the choice I gave you.

then the LORD your God will have mercy on you. He will bring you back from the nations where he has scattered you, and he will make you prosperous again.

listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O LORD.

then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them.

Remember now what you told Moses: 'If you people of Israel are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the other nations.

But then if you turn back to me and do what I have commanded you, I will bring you back to the place where I have chosen to be worshiped, even though you are scattered to the ends of the earth.'

Turn to the LORD and pray to him, now that he is near.

Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the LORD, our God; he is merciful and quick to forgive.

He told me to go and say to Israel, "Unfaithful Israel, come back to me. I am merciful and will not be angry; I will not be angry with you forever.

"Unfaithful people, come back; you belong to me. I will take one of you from each town and two from each clan, and I will bring you back to Mount Zion.

"Now I, the Sovereign LORD, am telling you Israelites that I will judge each of you by what you have done. Turn away from all the evil you are doing, and don't let your sin destroy you.

I do not want anyone to die," says the Sovereign LORD. "Turn away from your sins and live."

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

but now I say to you, 'Return to me, and I will return to you.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

"You have said terrible things about me," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'What have we said about you?'

The LORD Almighty says to the priests, "Children honor their parents, and servants honor their masters. I am your father---why don't you honor me? I am your master---why don't you respect me? You despise me, and yet you ask, 'How have we despised you?'

I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way.

"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside.

He wished he could fill himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat.

I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I held out my hands to welcome a disobedient and rebellious people."