151 Then the Lord said to me, "Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people ; send them away from My presence and let them go ! 2 "And it shall be that when they say to you, 'Where should we go ?' then you are to tell them, 'Thus says the Lord : "Those destined for death , to death ; And those destined for the sword , to the sword ; And those destined for famine , to famine ; And those destined for captivity , to captivity ."' 3 "I will appoint over them four kinds of doom," declares the Lord : "the sword to slay , the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy . 4 "I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh , the son of Hezekiah , the king of Judah , for what he did in Jerusalem . 5 "Indeed , who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem , Or who will mourn for you, Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare ? 6 "You who have forsaken Me," declares the Lord , "You keep going backward . So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting ! 7 "I will winnow them with a winnowing fork At the gates of the land ; I will bereave them of children , I will destroy My people ; They did not repent of their ways . 8 "Their widows will be more numerous before Me Than the sand of the seas ; I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man , A destroyer at noonday ; I will suddenly bring down on her Anguish and dismay . 9 "She who bore seven sons pines away ; Her breathing is labored . Her sun has set while it was yet day ; She has been shamed and humiliated . So I will give over their survivors to the sword Before their enemies ," declares the Lord .
10 Woe to me, my mother , that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land ! I have not lent , nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me. 11 The Lord said , "Surely e I will set you free for purposes of good ; Surely e I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you In a time of disaster and a time of distress . 12 "Can anyone smash iron , Iron from the north , or bronze ? 13 "Your wealth and your treasures I will give for booty without cost , Even for all your sins And within all your borders . 14 "Then I will cause your enemies to bring it Into a land you do not know ; For a fire has been kindled in My anger , It will burn upon you."
15 You who know , O Lord , Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors . Do not, in view of Your patience , take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach . 16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart ; For I have been called by Your name , O Lord God of hosts . 17 I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers , Nor did I exult . Because e of Your hand upon me I sat alone , For You filled me with indignation . 18 Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable , refusing to be healed ? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable e ? 19 Therefore , thus says the Lord , " If you return , then I will restore you- Before Me you will stand ; And if you extract the precious from the worthless , You will become My spokesman . They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them. 20 "Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze ; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," declares the Lord . 21 "So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked , And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent ."
31 God says , " If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man , Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted ? But you are a harlot with many lovers ; Yet you turn to Me," declares the Lord . 2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see ; Where have you not been violated ? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the desert , And you have polluted a land With your harlotry and with your wickedness . 3 "Therefore the showers have been withheld , And there has been no spring rain . Yet you had a harlot's e forehead ; You refused to be ashamed . 4 "Have you not just now called to Me, ' My Father , You are the friend of my youth ? 5 ' Will He be angry forever ? Will He be indignant to the end ?' Behold , you have spoken And have done evil things , And you have had your way ."
6 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king , "Have you seen what faithless Israel did ? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree , and she was a harlot there . 7 " I thought , 'After she has done all these things she will return to Me'; but she did not return , and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 "And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel , I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce , yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear ; but she went and was a harlot also . 9 "Because of the lightness of her harlotry , she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees . 10 "Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart , but rather e in deception ," declares the Lord . 11 And the Lord said to me, " Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah .
12 "Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say , ' Return , faithless Israel ,' declares the Lord ; ' I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious ,' declares the Lord ; 'I will not be angry forever . 13 'Only acknowledge your iniquity , That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree , And you have not obeyed My voice ,' declares the Lord . 14 'Return , O faithless sons ,' declares the Lord ; 'For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family , And I will bring you to Zion .' 15 "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart , who will feed you on knowledge and understanding . 16 "It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land ," declares the Lord , "they will no longer say , 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord .' And it will not come to mind , nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again . 17 "At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the Lord ,' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem , for the name of the Lord ; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart . 18 " In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel , and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance . 19 "Then I said , 'How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land , The most beautiful inheritance of the nations !' And I said , 'You shall call Me, My Father , And not turn away from following Me.'
20 "Surely , as a woman treacherously departs from her lover , So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel ," declares the Lord . 21 A voice is heard on the bare heights , The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel ; Because they have perverted their way , They have forgotten the Lord their God . 22 "Return , O faithless sons , I will heal your faithlessness ." "Behold , we come to You; For You are the Lord our God . 23 "Surely , the hills are a deception , A tumult on the mountains . Surely in the Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel . 24 "But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth , their flocks and their herds , their sons and their daughters . 25 "Let us lie down in our shame , and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God , we and our fathers , from our youth even to this day . And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God ."