I promise to be with you and keep you safe, so don't be afraid.”

and I am sending you with authority to speak to the nations for me. You will tell them of doom and destruction, and of rising and rebuilding again.”

I brought you here to my land, where food is abundant, but you made my land filthy with your sins.

Tell the heavens to tremble with fear!

Your own sins will punish you, because it was a bitter mistake for you to reject me without fear of punishment. I, the Lord All-Powerful, have spoken.

Israel Is Stained with Guilt

The Lord said: People of Israel, you are stained with guilt, and no soap or bleach can wash it away.

You are a female donkey sniffing the desert air, wanting to mate with just anyone. You are an easy catch!

Now listen to what I say! Did I abandon you in the desert or surround you with darkness? You are my people, yet you have told me, “We'll do what we want, and we refuse to worship you!”

you claim to be innocent, and you want me to stop being angry with you. So I'll take you to court, and we'll see who is right.

With all your hearts, keep the agreement I made with you. But if you are stubborn and keep on sinning, my anger will burn like a fire that cannot be put out.

Disaster Is Coming

The Lord said:

*

Then I told the people of Israel, “Put on sackcloth! Mourn and cry out, ‘The Lord is still angry with us.’ ”

After this, I looked around. The earth was barren, with no form of life. The sun, moon, and stars had disappeared.

You are no better than animals, and you always want sex with someone else's wife.

that you should worship me with fear and trembling? I'm the one who made the shore to hold back the ocean. Waves may crash on the beach, but they can come no farther.

Evil pours from your city like water from a spring. Sounds of injustice and violence echo within your walls; victims are everywhere, wounded and dying.

Then the people said, “Just hearing about them makes us tremble with fear, and we twist and turn in pain like a woman giving birth.”

and attacks without warning. So mourn, my people, as though your only child had died. Wear clothes made of sackcloth and roll in the ash pile.”

I will keep you safe only if you change your ways and are fair and honest with each other.

And now, I, the Lord All-Powerful, will flood Judah with my fiery anger until nothing is left—no people or animals, no trees or crops.

When I am finished with your land, there will be deathly silence in the empty ruins of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah—no happy voices, no sounds of parties or wedding celebrations.

Then the bones of the dead kings of Judah and their officials will be dug up, along with the bones of the priests, the prophets, and everyone else in Jerusalem

I listen carefully, but none of you admit that you've done wrong. Without a second thought, you run down the wrong road like horses running blindly into battle.

I will wipe them out. They are vines without grapes; fig trees without figs or leaves. They have not done a thing that I told them! I, the Lord, have spoken.

The People and Their Punishment

The people of Judah say to each other, “What are we waiting for? Let's run to a town with walls and die there. We rebelled against the Lord, and we were sentenced to die by drinking poison.

Our enemies have reached the town of Dan in the north, and the snorting of their horses makes us tremble with fear. The enemy will destroy Jerusalem and our entire nation. No one will survive.”