The Message Bible MSG
New International Version NIV
1 God's Message came to me. It went like this:
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The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem, 'God's Message! I remember your youthful loyalty, our love as newlyweds. You stayed with me through the wilderness years, stuck with me through all the hard places.
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“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: “ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.
3 Israel was God's holy choice, the pick of the crop. Anyone who laid a hand on her would soon wish he hadn't!'" God's Decree.
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Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ ” declares the LORD.
4 Hear God's Message, House of Jacob! Yes, you - House of Israel!
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Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.
5 God's Message: "What did your ancestors find fault with in me that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves?
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This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
6 It never occurred to them to say, 'Where's God, the God who got us out of Egypt, Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys, A land that no one who enters comes out of, a cruel, inhospitable land?'
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They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.