How shall I deal with you, O Ephraim? [How] shall I protect you, O Israel? What shall I do with you? I will make you as Adamah, and as Zeboiim; My heart is turned at once, My repentance is powerfully excited.

And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and [every] man of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard.

What shall I do anymore to My vineyard, that I have not done to it? Whereas I expected [it] to bring forth grapes, but it has brought forth thorns.

And I said, So be it, Lord, for [You said] I will set you among children, and will give you a choice land, the inheritance of the Almighty God of the Gentiles. And I said, You shall call me Father; and you shall not turn away from Me.

In what [way] shall I forgive you for these things? Your sons have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are not gods. And I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and lodged in harlots' houses.

Shall I not punish them for these things? Says the Lord: and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

But this people have a disobedient and rebellious heart; and they have turned aside and gone back.

Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I will try them with fire, and prove them; for I will do [thus] because of the wickedness of the daughter of My people.

Then he said to the vinedresser, 'Look, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I haven't found [any]. Cut it down; why does it even waste the ground?'

And if it produces fruit, [fine]. But if not, in the coming [year], you can cut it down.'"

And as He drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it,

saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things pertaining to your peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

And because the Lord raised them up judges, so the Lord was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved at their groaning by reason of them that besieged them and afflicted them.

And it came to pass when the judge died, that they went back, and again corrupted [themselves] worse than their fathers to go after other gods, to serve them and to worship them: they did not abandon their own doings, nor their stubborn ways.

When He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought diligently after God.

Yet they loved Him [only] with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue.

Then they believed His words, and celebrated His praise.

They made haste, they forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel.

And for all these things faithless Judah turned not to Me with all her heart, but falsely.

And this day they turned to do that which was right in My sight, to proclaim everyone the release of his neighbor; and they had made a covenant before Me, in the house which is called by My name.

yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. For when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

For if having escaped from the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, yet by these, having become entangled they are defeated, the latter end has become worse for them than the first.

But it has happened to them [according to] the [saying] of the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "A sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

Therefore shall they be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as chaff blown away from the threshing floor, and as a vapor from tears.