Your leaders are rebels and friends of thieves; they are always accepting gifts and bribes. They never defend orphans in court or listen when widows present their case.

I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."

They are always rebelling against God, always lying, always refusing to listen to the LORD's teachings.

whose people were wicked and sinned against the LORD.

"Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.

"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

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.

For her sins are piled up as high as heaven, and God remembers her wicked ways.

Come here to be judged, you sinners! You are no better than sorcerers, adulterers, and prostitutes.

Who are you making fun of ? Who are you liars jeering at?

And now you have taken your ancestors' place, a new generation of sinful people ready to bring down the fierce anger of the LORD on Israel again.

They will not be like their ancestors, a rebellious and disobedient people, whose trust in God was never firm and who did not remain faithful to him.

Yet no one listened or paid any attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors.

Then tell them that the LORD has said, 'Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

When John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him to be baptized, he said to them, "You snakes---who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send?

You snakes and children of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell?

You certainly know how to chase after lovers. Even the worst of women can learn from you.

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

And the answer will be, 'It is because the LORD's people broke the covenant they had made with him, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of Egypt.

The LORD said to Moses, "You will soon die, and after your death the people will become unfaithful to me and break the covenant that I made with them. They will abandon me and worship the pagan gods of the land they are about to enter.

Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD and said, "We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshiped the Baals."

for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

Israel, you brought this on yourself ! You deserted me, the LORD your God, while I was leading you along the way.

Your own evil will punish you, and your turning from me will condemn you. You will learn how bitter and wrong it is to abandon me, the LORD your God, and no longer to remain faithful to me. I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, have spoken."

Yes, Jerusalem is doomed! Judah is collapsing! Everything they say and do is against the LORD; they openly insult God himself.

They shamelessly keep on making me angry. They offer pagan sacrifices at sacred gardens and burn incense on pagan altars.

"When the LORD saw this, he was angry and rejected his sons and daughters.

How often they rebelled against him in the desert; how many times they made him sad!

But am I really the one they are hurting? No, they are hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves.

Or do we want to make the Lord jealous? Do we think that we are stronger than he?

You say, "Let the LORD hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind."

So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the LORD Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us.

Let everyone who lives in Zion shout and sing! Israel's holy God is great, and he lives among his people."

Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the LORD, the holy God of Israel, gives.

Get out of our way and stop blocking our path. We don't want to hear about your holy God of Israel."

But this is what the holy God of Israel says: "You ignore what I tell you and rely on violence and deceit.

The Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says to the people, "Come back and quietly trust in me. Then you will be strong and secure." But you refuse to do it.

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

The LORD says, "Small and weak as you are, Israel, don't be afraid; I will help you. I, the holy God of Israel, am the one who saves you.

You will toss them in the air; the wind will carry them off, and they will be scattered by the storm. Then you will be happy because I am your God; you will praise me, the holy God of Israel.

People will see this and know that I, the LORD, have done it. They will come to understand that Israel's holy God has made it happen."

You, O LORD, chose our protector; you, the Holy God of Israel, gave us our king.

"Tell the archers to attack Babylon. Send out everyone who knows how to use the bow and arrow. Surround the city and don't let anyone escape. Pay it back for all it has done, and treat it as it has treated others, because it acted with pride against me, the Holy One of Israel.

I, the LORD God Almighty, have not abandoned Israel and Judah, even though they have sinned against me, the Holy One of Israel.

Evildoers go wrong all their lives; they tell lies from the day they are born.

The LORD says: "What accusation did your ancestors bring against me? What made them turn away from me? They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves.

People of Israel, listen to what I am saying. Have I been like a desert to you, like a dark and dangerous land? Why, then, do you say that you will do as you please, that you will never come back to me?

And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it.

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.