God

"At that time it will be said of this people and of Yerushalayim: 'A scorching wind from the desert heights is sweeping down on my people.' It is not coming to winnow or cleanse;

this wind of mine is too strong for that. Now I will pass sentence on them."

Like guards in a field they surround her, because she has rebelled against me," says ADONAI.

"It is because my people are foolish - they do not know me; they are stupid children, without understanding, wise when doing evil; but they don't know how to do good."

I looked, and the fertile fields were a desert, all the land's cities were razed to the ground at the presence of ADONAI, before his burning anger.

For here is what ADONAI says: "The whole land will be desolate (although I will not destroy it completely).

Because of this, the land will mourn and the sky above be black; for I have spoken, I have decided, I will not change my mind, I will not turn back."

For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor, in anguish giving birth to her first child. It is the sound of the daughter of Tziyon gasping for breath as she spreads her hands: "Woe to me! Everything in me is so weary before the killers."

"Roam the streets of Yerushalayim look around, observe and ask in its open spaces: if you can find anyone (if there is anyone!) who acts with justice and seeks the truth, I will pardon her.

And though they say, 'As ADONAI lives,' the fact is that they are swearing falsely."

ADONAI, your eyes look for truth. You struck them, but they weren't affected; you [nearly] destroyed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than rock, refusing to repent.

My reaction was, "These must be the poor, the foolish, not knowing the way of ADONAI or the rulings of their God.

I will go to the prominent men, and I will speak to them; for they know the way of ADONAI and the rulings of their God." But these had completely broken the yoke and torn the harness off.

"Why should I forgive you? Your people have abandoned me and sworn by non-gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery, thronging to the brothels.

Should I not punish for this?" asks ADONAI. "Should I not be avenged on a nation like this?"

Go through her rows [of vines], and destroy them (but don't destroy them completely): strip away her branches, they do not belong to ADONAI.

"For the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah have thoroughly betrayed me," says ADONAI.

They have denied ADONAI, they have said, "He won't do anything, calamity will not strike us, we will see neither sword nor famine.

Therefore ADONAI Elohei-Tzva'ot says: "Because you people speak this way, I will make my words fire in your mouth, [Yirmeyahu,] and this people wood; so that it will devour them.

I will bring on you, house of Isra'el, a distant nation," says ADONAI, "an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know - you will not understand what they are saying.

But even in those days," says ADONAI, "I will not completely destroy you.

And when your people ask, 'Why has ADONAI our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: 'Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'

Don't you fear me? - says ADONAI. Won't you tremble at my presence? I made the shore the limit for the sea; by eternal decree it cannot pass. Its waves may toss, but to no avail; although they roar, they cannot cross it.

They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear ADONAI our God, who gives the fall and spring rains in season, who reserves us the weeks assigned for harvest."

"For among my people there are wicked men, who, like fowlers, lie in wait and set traps to catch their fellow human beings.