23
I did not send fire upon you for your blasphemies, but threw a tree into the water and made the stream sweet.
24
"What shall I do to you, O Jacob? You would not obey me, O Judah. I will turn to other nations and will give them my name, that they may keep my statutes.
25
Because you have forsaken me, I also will forsake you. When you beg mercy of me, I will show you no mercy.
26
When you call upon me, I will not listen to you; for you have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are swift to commit murder.
27
It is not as though you had forsaken me; you have forsaken yourselves, says the Lord.
28
"Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children,
29
that you should be my people and I should be your God, and that you should be my sons and I should be your father?
30
I gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But now, what shall I do to you? I will cast you out from my presence.
31
When you offer oblations to me, I will turn my face from you; for I have rejected your feast days, and new moons, and circumcisions of the flesh.
32
I sent to you my servants the prophets, but you have taken and slain them and torn their bodies in pieces; their blood I will require of you, says the Lord.
33
"Thus says the Lord Almighty: Your house is desolate; I will drive you out as the wind drives straw;