The Hebrew Prophets

ADONAI, you know. Remember me, think of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Because you are patient, don't banish me; know that for your sake I suffer insults.

When I found your words, I devoured them; your words made me glad, they gave me joy; because, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, you had me bear your name.

I have never kept company with merrymakers, I could not celebrate; with your hand on me I sat by myself, for you filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be for me like a deceptive vadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?

This is ADONAI's answer: "If you return - if I bring you back you will stand before me. If you separate the precious from the base, you will be my spokesman. It will then be they who turn to you, not you who turn to them.

Toward this people I will make you a fortified wall of bronze they will fight against you but not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and rescue you," says ADONAI.

"I will free you from the grasp of the wicked and redeem you from the clutches of the ruthless."

This word of ADONAI came to me:

"You are not to marry or have sons and daughters in this place.

For this is what ADONAI says concerning the sons and daughters born here, as well as their mothers who gave birth to them and their fathers who conceived them in this land:

'They will die terrible deaths without being mourned or buried; they will be left on the ground like dung. They will die by the sword and by famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds in the air and the wild animals.'

"For here is what ADONAI says: 'Do not enter any house where there is mourning; don't lament them, and don't grieve for them; for I have removed my shalom from this people, as well as my grace and compassion,' says ADONAI.

'Great and small alike will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not lament them; nor will they cut their flesh or shave their heads for them.

No one will prepare a meal for those in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; and no one will give them a cup to drink, to console them for their father or mother.'

And you are not to go into any house where there is celebrating to sit with them, eating and drinking.

For here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'In this place, while you are still alive, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bridegroom and bride.'

"When you tell this people all that I have said, and they ask you, 'Why has ADONAI decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity, what is our sin, that we have committed against ADONAI our God?'

then you are to say to them, 'It is because your ancestors abandoned me, says ADONAI, and went after other gods, serving and worshipping them, but abandoned me and did not keep my Torah.

And you have done worse than your ancestors, for - look! - each of you lives according to the stubbornness of his own evilheart, so that you don't listen to me.

Therefore I am thrusting you out of this land into a land you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; and there you will serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'

"'Therefore,' says ADONAI, 'the day will come when people will no longer swear, "As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,"

but, "As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land to the north and out of all the countries where he drove them"; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their ancestors.

"'Look,' says ADONAI, 'I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish for them. Afterwards, I will send for many hunters; and they will hunt them from every mountain and hill and out of caves in the rocks.

For I see all their ways; they are not hidden from me; their crimes are not concealed from my eyes.

First, I will pay them back double for their crimes and sins; because they have defiled the land which is mine; they have filled my heritage with the corpses of their horrors and abominations.'"