And He said to me, Son of man, go your way, and go in to the house of Israel, and speak My words to them.

neither to many nations of other speech and other tongues, nor of harsh language, whose words you would not understand; although if I [had] sent you to such, they would have hearkened to you.

And behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and I will strengthen your power against their power.

And the Lord God of their fathers sent by the hand of His prophets; rising early and sending His messengers, for He had compassion on His people, and His sanctuary.

Nevertheless they sneered at His messengers, and despised His words, and mocked His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose up against His people, till there was no remedy.

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, behold, I am [here], send me. And He said, Go, and say to this people,

For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

And the Lord said to me, Say not, I am a child; for you shall go to all to whomsoever I shall send you, and according to all [the words] that I shall command you, you shall speak.

Hear the word of the Lord, all Judea.

In the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, even until this day for twenty-three years, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking,

Turn, everyone of you, from his evil way, and from your evil practices, and you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers, forever and ever.

But you hearkened not to Me.

Thus said the Lord; Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and you shall declare to all the Jews, and to all that come to worship in the house of the Lord, all the words which I commanded you to speak to them; do not leave out one word.

And you shall say, Thus said the Lord: If you will not hearken to Me, to walk in My statutes which I set before you,

then will I make this house as Shiloh, and I will make [this] city a curse to all the nations of all the earth.

Take a scroll of a book, and write upon it all the words which I spoke to you against Jerusalem, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day when I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah king of Judah, even to this day.

And at harvest-time he sent a servant to the farmers, in order that he might receive [his part] from the fruit of the vineyard.

Again he sent them another servant, and that one they wounded in the head with stones, and they sent him away shamefully treated.

and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things.

Therefore Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! Just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, of those preaching the gospel of good things!"

Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

and you shall say, Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem: Your root and your birth are of the land of Canaan: your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

Nor did My eye pity you, to do for you one of all these things, to feel at all for you; but you were cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of your person, in the day in which you were born.

increase; I have made you as the springing grass of the field. So you increased and grew, and entered into great cities: your breasts were set, and your hair grew, whereas you were naked and bare.

And I washed you in water, and washed your blood from you, and anointed you with oil.

and decked you also with ornaments, and put bracelets on your hands, and a necklace on your neck.

So you were adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour and oil and honey, and became extremely beautiful.

But you trusted in your beauty, and went a-whoring because of your fame, and poured out your fornication on every passer by.

And you took your fair ornaments of My gold and of My silver, of what I gave you, and you made for yourself male images, and you committed harlotry with them.

And [you took] My bread which I gave you, ([yea,] I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey) and set them before them for a sweet-smelling savor; yes, it was so, says the Lord.

and slain your children, and gave them up, in offering them up as a sacrifice.

And it came to pass after all your wickedness, says the Lord,

and on the head of every road you set up your fornications, and defiled your beauty, and opened your feet to every passer by, and multiplied your fornication.

And if I stretch out My hand against you, then will I abolish your statutes, and deliver [you] up to the will of those that hate you, [even to] the daughters of the Philistines that turned you aside from the way in which you sinned.

And you multiplied your covenants with the land of the Chaldeans; and not even with these were you satisfied.

You have built a house of harlotry at the head of every road, and have set up your high place in every street; and you became as a harlot gathering payments.

She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and you have given rewards to all your lovers, yea, you loaded them with rewards, that they should come to you from every side for your fornication.

Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord:

Therefore, behold, I [will] gather all your lovers with whom you have consorted, and all whom you have loved, with all whom you hated; and I will gather them against you round about, and will expose your wickedness to them, and they shall see all your shame.

And I will deliver you into their hands, and they shall break down your house of harlotry, and destroy your high place; and they shall strip you of your garments, and shall take your proud ornaments, and leave you naked and bare.

And they shall burn your houses with fire, and shall execute vengeance on you in the sight of many women; and I will turn you back from harlotry, and I will no more give [you] rewards.

Because you did not remember the days of your youth, and you grieved Me in all these things; therefore, behold, I have recompensed your ways upon your head, says the Lord; for thus have you wrought ungodliness above all your [other] iniquities.

As is the mother, so is your mother's daughter: you are she that has rejected her husband and her children; and the sisters of your sisters have rejected their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and [your] father an Amorite.

Yet notwithstanding you have not walked in their ways, neither have you done according to their iniquities within a little, but you have exceeded them in all your ways.

Moreover this was the sin of your sister Sodom- pride. She and her daughters lived in pleasure, in fullness of bread [and] in abundance; this belonged to her and her daughters, and they helped not the hand of the poor and needy.

Also Samaria has not sinned according to half of your sins; but you have multiplied your iniquities beyond them, and you have justified your sisters in all your iniquities which you have committed.

And I will turn their captivity, [even] the captivity of Sodom and her daughters; and I will turn the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; and I will turn your captivity in the midst of them;

And your sister Sodom and her daughters shall be restored as they were at the beginning, and you and your daughters shall be restored as you were at the beginning.

before your wickedness was discovered, even now you are the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, [even] of the daughters of the Philistines that compass you round about.

Thus says the Lord: I will even do to you as you have done, as you have dealt shamefully in these things to transgress My covenant.

Then you shall remember your way, and shall be utterly dishonored when you receive your elder sisters with your younger ones, and I will give them to you for building up, but not by your covenant.

that you may remember, and be ashamed, and may no more be able to open your mouth for your shame, when I am reconciled to you for all that you have done, says the Lord.

And it came to pass in the seventh year, on the fifteenth day of the month, there came men of the elders of the house of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

Son of man, speak to the elders of the house of Israel, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Have you come to inquire of Me? [As] I live, I will not be inquired of by you, says the Lord.

and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: From the day that I chose the house of Israel, and became known to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was known to them in the land of Egypt, and helped them with My hand, saying, I am the Lord your God;

And I said to them, Let everyone cast away the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the devices of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

But I acted [so] that My name should not be at all profaned in the sight of the Gentiles, in the midst of whom they are, among whom I was made known to them in their sight, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

And I gave them My commandments, and made known to them My ordinances, all which [if] a man shall do, he shall even live in them.

And I said to the house of Israel in the wilderness, Walk in My commandments: but they walked not [in them], and they rejected My ordinances, which [if] a man shall do, he shall even live in them; and they grievously profaned My Sabbaths. And I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

But I lifted up My hand against them in the wilderness once for all, that I would not bring them into the land which I gave them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is sweeter than all lands;

Yet My eyes spared them, so as [not] to destroy them utterly, and I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.

I [am] the Lord your God; walk in My commandments, and keep My ordinances, and do them;

But they provoked Me, and their children walked not in My commandments, and they took no heed to My ordinances to do them, which [if] a man shall do, he shall even live in them, and they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them in the wilderness, to accomplish My anger upon them.

I lifted up My hand against them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles, [and] disperse them in the countries;

So I gave them commandments [that were] not good, and ordinances in which they should not live.

Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: In this too have your fathers provoked Me in their trespasses in which they transgressed against Me.

And I said to them, What is Bamah, that you go in there? And they called its name Bamah, until this day.

and [do you pollute yourselves] with the firstfruits of your gifts, in the offerings wherewith you pollute yourselves in all your imaginations, until this day; and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? [As] I live, says the Lord, I will not answer you, neither shall this thing come upon your spirit.

Therefore, [as] I live, says the Lord, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a high arm, and with outpoured wrath.

And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and will plead with you there face to face.

And I will cause you to pass under My rod, and I will bring you in by number.

And [as for] you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord, [even] the Lord: Put away each one his [evil] practices, and hereafter if you hearken to Me, then shall you no more profane My holy name by your gifts and by devices.

I will accept you with a sweet-smelling savor, when I bring you out from the nations, and take you out of the countries in which you have been dispersed; and I will be sanctified among you in the sight of the nations.

And you shall there remember your ways, and your devices in which you defiled yourselves; and you shall bewail yourselves for all your wickedness.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

and you shall say to the forest of Negev, Hear the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord, [even] the Lord: Behold, I [will] kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour in you every green tree, and every dry tree. The flame that is kindled shall not be quenched, and every face shall be scorched with it from the south to the north.

And I said, Not so, O Lord God! They say to me, Is not this that is spoken a parable?

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

and they went a-whoring in Egypt in their youth. There their breasts fell, there they lost their virginity.

And Oholah went a-whoring from Me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that were her neighbors,

And she bestowed her fornication upon them; all were choice sons of the Assyrians: and on whomsoever she doted herself, with them she defiled herself in all [their] devices.

Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the children of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

And her sister Oholibah saw [it], and she indulged in her fondness more corruptly than she, and in her fornication more than the fornication of her sister.

And I saw that they were defiled, [that] the two [had] one way.

having variegated belts on their loins, having also richly dyed [turbans] upon their heads; all had a princely appearance, the likeness of the children of the Chaldeans, of their native land.

And the sons of Babylon came to her, into the bed of rest, and they defiled her in her fornication, and she was defiled by them, and her soul was alienated from them.

And you multiplied your fornication, so as to call to remembrance the days of your youth, in which you committed harlotry in Egypt,

And you looked upon the iniquity of your youth, [the things] which you did in Egypt in your lodgings, where were the breasts of your youth.

the children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the sons of the Assyrians with them; choice young men, governors and captains, all princes and renowned, riding on horses.

And I will bring upon you My jealousy, and they shall deal with you in great wrath. They shall take away your nose and your ears, and shall cast down your remnant with the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and fire shall devour your remnant.

So I will turn back your ungodliness from you, and your fornication from the land of Egypt; and you shall not lift up your eyes upon them, and shall no more remember Egypt.

And they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take all [the fruits] of your labors and your toils, and you shall be naked and bare; and the shame of your fornication shall be exposed. And your ungodliness and your fornication

You walked in the way of your sister; and I will put her cup into your hands.

And you shall be thoroughly weakened; and the cup of destruction, the cup of your sister Samaria,

Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have forgotten Me, and have cast Me behind your back, therefore receive [the reward] of your ungodliness and your fornication.

For they have committed adultery, and blood was in their hands, they committed adultery with their devices, and they passed through the fire to them their children which they bore to Me.

And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, they also went into My sanctuary to profane it; and whereas they did thus in the midst of My house,

and sat on a prepared bed, and before it [there was] a table set out, and [as for] My incense and My oil, they rejoiced in them,

Therefore I said, Do they not commit adultery with these? And has she also gone a-whoring [after] the manner of a harlot?

And they are just men, and shall take vengeance on them with the judgment of an adulteress and the judgment of blood, for they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

And stone them with the stones of a multitude, and pierce them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and shall burn up their houses.

And your ungodliness shall be recompensed upon you, and you shall bear the guilt of your devices, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

And I said to their children in the wilderness, Walk not in the customs of your fathers, and keep not their ordinances, and have no fellowship with their practices, nor defile yourselves [with them].

and hallow My Sabbaths, and let them be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

But I acted so that My name might not be at all profaned before the Gentiles; and I brought them out in their sight.

because they kept not My ordinances, and rejected My commandments, and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes went after the imaginations of their fathers.

And I will defile them by their [own] decrees, when I pass through upon everyone that opens the womb, that I may destroy them.

Whereas I brought them into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to them; and they looked upon every high hill, and every shady tree, and they sacrificed there to their gods, and offered there sweet-smelling savors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Do you pollute yourselves with the iniquities of your fathers, and do you go a-whoring after their abominations,

And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock, and said to them, Hear me, you disobedient; must we bring you water out of this rock?

And the Lord was very angry with Israel; and for forty years He caused them to wander in the wilderness, until all the generation which did evil in the sight of the Lord was extinct.

Behold, you have risen up in the room of your fathers, a combination of sinful men, to increase yet farther the fierce wrath of the Lord against Israel.

You were disobedient in the things relating to the Lord from the day in which He became known to you.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself: look not upon the hardness of heart of this people, and their wickedness, and their sins.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Hear the voice of the people, in whatever they shall say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from reigning over them.

According to all their doings which they have done to Me, from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day, even as they have deserted Me, and served other gods, so they also do to you.

And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and practiced divinations and soothsaying, and sold themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him.

Even Judah as well kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but they walked according to the customs of Israel which they practiced, and rejected the Lord.

From the days of our fathers we have been in a great trespass until this day; and because of our iniquities we, and our kings, and our children, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the Gentiles by the sword, by captivity, by spoil, and with shame of our face, as at this day.

But they and our fathers behaved proudly, and hardened their neck, and did not hearken to Your commandments,

And still farther they even made for themselves a molded calf, and said, These [are] the gods that brought us up out of Egypt: and they worked great provocations.

For You [are] righteous in all the things that come upon us; and You have dealt faithfully, but we have greatly sinned.

And they did not serve You in Your kingdom, and in Your great goodness which You gave to them, and in the large and fat land which You furnished before them, and they turned not from their evil devices.

They provoked Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the holy one of the Lord.

And a fire was kindled in their congregation, and a flame burned up the sinners.

and they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that feeds on grass.

They provoked Him also at the Water of Strife, and Moses was hurt for their sakes;

They destroyed not the nations which the Lord told them [to destroy];

And they served their graven images; and it became an offense to them.

and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was defiled with blood,

So the Lord was very angry with His people, and He abhorred His inheritance.

We have lain down in our shame, and our disgrace has covered us. Because we and our fathers have sinned before our God, from our youth until this day; and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.

Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers forsook Me, says the Lord, and went after strange gods and served them, and worshipped them, and forsook Me, and kept not My law.

(And you sinned worse than your fathers- for behold, you walk everyone after the lusts of your own evil heart, so as not to listen to Me).

Did not the Lord remember the incense which you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem- you, and your fathers, and your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land? Did it not enter into His heart?

we have committed iniquity, we have transgressed, and we have departed and turned aside from Your commandments and from Your judgments;

To you, O Lord, [belongs] righteousness, and to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the earth, wherever You have scattered them, for the sin which they have committed.

To you, O Lord our God, [belong] compassion and forgiveness, whereas we have departed [from You.]

Moreover, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and have refused to heed Your voice; so the curse has come upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

As it is written in the Law of Moses, all these evils have come upon us: yet we have not sought after the Lord our God, that we might turn away from our iniquities, and have understanding in all Your truth.

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do.