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?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.