And yet you are proud to say that you are citizens of the holy city and that you depend on Israel's God, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

The leaders settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people drew lots to choose one family out of every ten to go and live in the holy city of Jerusalem, while the rest were to live in the other cities and towns.

There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High.

The LORD is great and is to be highly praised in the city of our God, on his sacred hill.

We have heard what God has done, and now we have seen it in the city of our God, the LORD Almighty; he will keep the city safe forever.

The LORD says, "The people of Israel have surrounded me with lies and deceit, and the people of Judah are still rebelling against me, the faithful and holy God.

I will return to Jerusalem, my holy city, and live there. It will be known as the faithful city, and the hill of the LORD Almighty will be called the sacred hill.

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels.

The Sovereign LORD says, "Israel, long ago you rejected my authority; you refused to obey me and worship me. On every high hill and under every green tree you worshiped fertility gods.

I planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. But look what you have become! You are like a rotten, worthless vine.

The LORD says, "If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me!

Her honor is gone; she is naked and held in contempt. She groans and hides her face in shame. Jerusalem made herself filthy with terrible sin.

Her uncleanness was easily seen, but she showed no concern for her fate. Her downfall was terrible; no one can comfort her. Her enemies have won, and she cries to the LORD for mercy.

The LORD spoke to me again.

Tell Jerusalem what the Sovereign LORD is saying to her: "You were born in the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.

No one took enough pity on you to do any of these things for you. When you were born, no one loved you. You were thrown out in an open field.

I made you grow like a healthy plant. You grew strong and tall and became a young woman. Your breasts were well-formed, and your hair had grown, but you were naked.

"Then I took water and washed the blood off you. I rubbed olive oil on your skin.

I put jewels on you---bracelets and necklaces.

You had ornaments of gold and silver, and you always wore clothes of embroidered linen and silk. You ate bread made from the best flour, and had honey and olive oil to eat. Your beauty was dazzling, and you became a queen.

"But you took advantage of your beauty and fame to sleep with everyone who came along.

You took the silver and gold jewelry that I had given you, used it to make male images, and committed adultery with them.

I gave you food---the best flour, olive oil, and honey---but you offered it as a sacrifice to win the favor of idols." This is what the Sovereign LORD says.

without taking my children and sacrificing them to idols?

The Sovereign LORD said, "You are doomed! Doomed! You did all that evil, and then

You dragged your beauty through the mud. You offered yourself to everyone who came by, and you were more of a prostitute every day.

"Now I have raised my hand to punish you and to take away your share of my blessing. I have handed you over to the Philistines, who hate you and are disgusted with your immoral actions.

You were also a prostitute for the Babylonians, that nation of merchants, but they didn't satisfy you either."

On every street you built places to worship idols and practice prostitution. But you are not out for money like a common prostitute.

A prostitute is paid, but you gave presents to all your lovers and bribed them to come from everywhere to sleep with you.

Now then, Jerusalem, you whore! Hear what the LORD is saying.

Because of this I will bring all your former lovers together---the ones you liked and the ones you hated. I will bring them around you in a circle, and then I will strip off your clothes and let them see you naked.

I will put you in their power, and they will tear down the places where you engage in prostitution and worship idols. They will take away your clothes and jewels and leave you completely naked.

They will burn your houses down and let crowds of women see your punishment. I will make you stop being a prostitute and make you stop giving gifts to your lovers.

You have forgotten how I treated you when you were young, and you have made me angry by all the things you did. That is why I have made you pay for them all. Why did you add sexual immorality to all the other disgusting things you did?" The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

You really are your mother's daughter. She detested her husband and her children. You are like your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. You and your sister cities had a Hittite mother and an Amorite father.

Were you satisfied to follow in their footsteps and copy their disgusting actions? No, in only a little while you were acting worse than they were in everything you did.

She and her daughters were proud because they had plenty to eat and lived in peace and quiet, but they did not take care of the poor and the underprivileged.

"Samaria did not sin half as much as you have. You have acted more disgustingly than she ever did. Your corruption makes your sisters look innocent by comparison.

The LORD said to Jerusalem, "I will make them prosperous again---Sodom and her villages and Samaria and her villages. Yes, I will make you prosperous too.

They will become prosperous again, and you and your villages will also be restored.

and before the evil you did had been exposed? Now you are just like her---a joke to the Edomites, the Philistines, and your other neighbors who hate you.

The Sovereign LORD says, "I will treat you the way you deserve, because you ignored your promises and broke the covenant.

You will remember how you have acted, and be ashamed of it when you get your older sister and your younger sister back. I will let them be like daughters to you, even though this was not part of my covenant with you.

I will forgive all the wrongs you have done, but you will remember them and be too ashamed to open your mouth." The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

The LORD spoke to me.

Tell the city what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying: Because you have murdered so many of your own people and have defiled yourself by worshiping idols, your time is coming.

Countries nearby and countries far away sneer at you because of your lawlessness.

None of you in the city honor your parents. You cheat foreigners and take advantage of widows and orphans.

Some of your people tell lies about others in order to have them put to death. Some of them eat sacrifices offered to idols. Some are always satisfying their lusts.

Some commit adultery, and others seduce their daughters-in-law or their half sisters.

"I will bring my fist down on your robberies and murders.

I will scatter your people to every country and nation and will put an end to your evil actions.

The LORD said to me,

So now I, the Sovereign LORD, am telling them that they are just as useless as that. I will bring them all together in Jerusalem

Yes, I will gather them in Jerusalem, build a fire under them, and melt them with my anger.

The LORD spoke to me again.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!

But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the heathen, who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months.

and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of that city is Sodom, or Egypt.

Israel is the vineyard of the LORD Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted. He expected them to do what was good, but instead they committed murder. He expected them to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice.

David ruled over all of Israel and made sure that his people were always treated fairly and justly.

He gave them the following instructions: "You must perform your duties in reverence for the LORD, faithfully obeying him in everything you do.

Tell the city what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying: Because you have murdered so many of your own people and have defiled yourself by worshiping idols, your time is coming.

Countries nearby and countries far away sneer at you because of your lawlessness.

None of you in the city honor your parents. You cheat foreigners and take advantage of widows and orphans.

yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones.

You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot.

Jerusalem is doomed, that corrupt, rebellious city that oppresses its own people.

Its officials are like roaring lions; its judges are like hungry wolves, too greedy to leave a bone until morning.

Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.