171 "Judah's sin is engraved with a steel chisel, A steel chisel with a diamond point - engraved on their granite hearts, engraved on the stone corners of their altars. 2 The evidence against them is plain to see: sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines Anywhere there's a grove of trees, anywhere there's an available hill. 3 "I'll use your mountains as roadside stands for giving away everything you have. All your 'things' will serve as reparations for your sins all over the country. 4 You'll lose your gift of land, The inheritance I gave you. I'll make you slaves of your enemies in a far-off and strange land. My anger is hot and blazing and fierce, and no one will put it out."
5 God's Message: "Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight. 6 He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows. 7 "But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. 8 They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers - Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season. 9 "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. 10 But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be." 11 Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggs in another bird's nest Is the person who gets rich by cheating. When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed. What a fool he'll look like then!
12 From early on your Sanctuary was set high, a throne of glory, exalted! 13 O God, you're the hope of Israel. All who leave you end up as fools, Deserters with nothing to show for their lives, who walk off from God, fountain of living waters - and wind up dead! 14 God, pick up the pieces. Put me back together again. You are my praise! 15 Listen to how they talk about me: "So where's this 'Word of God'? We'd like to see something happen!" 16 But it wasn't my idea to call for Doomsday. I never wanted trouble. You know what I've said. It's all out in the open before you. 17 Don't add to my troubles. Give me some relief! 18 Let those who harass me be harassed, not me. Let them be disgraced, not me. Bring down upon them the day of doom. Lower the boom. Boom! Keep the Sabbath Day Holy
19 God's Message to me: "Go stand in the People's Gate, the one used by Judah's kings as they come and go, and then proceed in turn to all the gates of Jerusalem. 20 Tell them: 'Listen, you kings of Judah, listen to God's Message - and all you people who go in and out of these gates, you listen! 21 "'This is God's Message. Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there. 22 Don't use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23 They never did it, as you know. They paid no attention to what I said and went about their own business, refusing to be guided or instructed by me. 24 "'But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual. 25 Then kings from the time of David and their officials will continue to ride through these gates on horses or in chariots. The people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem will continue to pass through them, too. Jerusalem will always be filled with people. 26 People will stream in from all over Judah, from the province of Benjamin, from the Jerusalem suburbs, from foothills and mountains and deserts. They'll come to worship, bringing all kinds of offerings - animals, grains, incense, expressions of thanks - into the Sanctuary of God. 27 "'But if you won't listen to me, won't keep the Sabbath holy, won't quit using the Sabbath for doing your own work, busily going in and out of the city gates on your self-important business, then I'll burn the gates down. In fact, I'll burn the whole city down, palaces and all, with a fire nobody will be able to put out!'"
31 God's Message came to me as follows: "If a man's wife walks out on him And marries another man, can he take her back as if nothing had happened? Wouldn't that raise a huge stink in the land? And isn't that what you've done - 'whored' your way with god after god? And now you want to come back as if nothing had happened." God's Decree. 2 "Look around at the hills. Where have you not had sex? You've camped out like hunters stalking deer. You've solicited many lover-gods, Like a streetwalking whore chasing after other gods. 3 And so the rain has stopped. No more rain from the skies! But it doesn't even faze you. Brazen as whores, you carry on as if you've done nothing wrong. 4 Then you have the nerve to call out, 'My father! You took care of me when I was a child. Why not now? 5 Are you going to keep up your anger nonstop?' That's your line. Meanwhile you keep sinning nonstop." Admit Your God-Defiance
6 God spoke to me during the reign of King Josiah: "You have noticed, haven't you, how fickle Israel has visited every hill and grove of trees as a whore at large? 7 I assumed that after she had gotten it out of her system, she'd come back, but she didn't. Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did. 8 She also saw that because of fickle Israel's loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn't faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore's life also. 9 She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country. 10 And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time." God's Decree. 11 Then God told me, "Fickle Israel was a good sight better than flighty Judah.
12 Go and preach this message. Face north toward Israel and say: "'Turn back, fickle Israel. I'm not just hanging back to punish you. I'm committed in love to you. My anger doesn't seethe nonstop. 13 Just admit your guilt. Admit your God-defiance. Admit to your promiscuous life with casual partners, pulling strangers into the sex-and-religion groves While turning a deaf ear to me.'" God's Decree. 14 "Come back, wandering children!" God's Decree. "I, yes I, am your true husband. I'll pick you out one by one - This one from the city, these two from the country - and bring you to Zion. 15 I'll give you good shepherd-rulers who rule my way, who rule you with intelligence and wisdom. 16 "And this is what will happen: You will increase and prosper in the land. The time will come" - God's Decree! - "when no one will say any longer, 'Oh, for the good old days! Remember the Ark of the Covenant?' It won't even occur to anyone to say it - 'the good old days.' The so-called good old days of the Ark are gone for good. 17 "Jerusalem will be the new Ark - 'God's Throne.' All the godless nations, no longer stuck in the ruts of their evil ways, will gather there to honor God. 18 "At that time, the House of Judah will join up with the House of Israel. Holding hands, they'll leave the north country and come to the land I willed to your ancestors. 19 "I planned what I'd say if you returned to me: 'Good! I'll bring you back into the family. I'll give you choice land, land that the godless nations would die for.' And I imagined that you would say, 'Dear father!' and would never again go off and leave me.
20 But no luck. Like a false-hearted woman walking out on her husband, you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me." God's Decree. 21 The sound of voices comes drifting out of the hills, the unhappy sound of Israel's crying, Israel lamenting the wasted years, never once giving her God a thought. 22 "Come back, wandering children! I can heal your wanderlust!" "We're here! We've come back to you. You're our own true God! 23 All that popular religion was a cheap lie, duped crowds buying up the latest in gods. We're back! Back to our true God, the salvation of Israel. 24 The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us of what our ancestors bequeathed us, Gypped us out of our inheritance - God-blessed flocks and God-given children. 25 We made our bed and now lie in it, all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor. All because we sinned against our God, we and our fathers and mothers. From the time we took our first steps, said our first words, we've been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God."
