Study Desk

Then I said, "But Lord God , I don't know how to speak. I am only a boy."

But the Lord said to me, "Don't say, ‘I am only a boy.' You must go everywhere I send you, and you must say everything I tell you to say.

They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you, because I am with you to protect you!" says the Lord .

I brought you into a fertile land so you could eat its fruit and produce. But you came and made my land unclean; you made it a hateful place.

Has a nation ever exchanged its gods? (Of course, its gods are not really gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for idols worth nothing.

But I planted you as a special vine, as a very good seed. How then did you turn into a wild vine that grows bad fruit?

Don't run until your feet are bare or until your throat is dry. But you say, ‘It's no use! I love those other gods, and I must chase them!'

They say to things of wood, ‘You are my father,' and to idols of stone, ‘You gave birth to me.' Those people won't look at me; they have turned their backs to me. But when they get into trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!'

"I punished your people, but it did not help. They didn't come back when they were punished. With your swords you killed your prophets like a hungry lion.

A young woman does not forget her jewelry, and a bride does not forget the decorations for her dress. But my people have forgotten me for more days than can be counted.

Even on your clothes you have the blood of poor and innocent people, but they weren't thieves you caught breaking in. You do all these things,

but you say, ‘I am innocent. God is not angry with me.' But I will judge you guilty of lying, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.'

You will eventually leave that place with your hands on your head, like captives. You trusted those countries, but you will not be helped by them, because the Lord has rejected them.

"If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should her first husband come back to her again? If he went back to her, wouldn't the land become completely unclean? But you have acted like a prostitute with many lovers, and now you want to come back to me?" says the Lord .

So the rain has not come, and there have not been any spring rains. But your face still looks like the face of a prostitute. You refuse even to be ashamed of what you did.

Will you always be angry at me? Will your anger last forever?' Judah, you said this, but you did as much evil as you could!"

I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she does this evil,' but she didn't come back. And Israel's wicked sister Judah saw what she did.

Judah saw that I divorced unfaithful Israel because of her adultery, but that didn't make Israel's wicked sister Judah afraid. She also went out and acted like a prostitute!

Israel's wicked sister didn't even come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended," says the Lord.

But like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, family of Israel, you have been unfaithful to me," says the Lord .