Why, when I came, was no one here? I called and no one answered. Is My hand shortened at all so that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink, because there is no water, and die of thirst.

And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him.

Have all the workers of iniquity not known, eating up My people as they eat bread? They have not called upon Jehovah.

So I sought for a man among them who would close up the wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen; not one among them calls unto Me.

And they have not cried to Me with their heart, when they wailed on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and wine; they turn aside from Me.

Or let them take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.

For thus says Jehovah to the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast to My covenant:

For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid Myself and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear.

And My anger will burn against them in that day, and I shall forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

And when Jehovah saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not the Mighty God; they have moved Me to anger by their vanities. So I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a people; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

I will heap evil upon them; I will use up My arrows upon them.

The sword from outside, and the terror from within, shall bereave the young man and virgin, the nursing child and the man of gray hairs.

I will go and return to My place until they confess their guilt and seek My face. In their affliction they will seek Me earnestly.

Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Behold, I will refine them and try them; for how else shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow fire on it to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you.

As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst. And you shall know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My fury upon you.

Then set the pot empty on the coals, that it may become hot and its bronze may burn, that its filthiness may be melted in it, that its scum may be consumed.

If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression.