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

So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick.

The sins of the wicked are a trap. They get caught in the net of their own sin.

Their prejudices will be held against them. They sin as openly as the people of Sodom did. They are doomed, and they have brought it on themselves.

"Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down.

The LORD says, "Do you think I sent my people away like a man who divorces his wife? Where, then, are the papers of divorce? Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes.

The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. Their sins make them stumble and fall, and the people of Judah fall with them.

When Josiah was king, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.

Judah also saw that I divorced Israel and sent her away because she had turned from me and had become a prostitute. But Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, was not afraid. She too became a prostitute

Then the LORD told me that, even though Israel had turned away from him, she had proved to be better than unfaithful Judah.

Only admit that you are guilty and that you have rebelled against the LORD, your God. Confess that under every green tree you have given your love to foreign gods and that you have not obeyed my commands. I, the LORD, have spoken.

That is why lions from the forest will kill them; wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces, and leopards will prowl through their towns. If those people go out, they will be torn apart because their sins are numerous and time after time they have turned from God.

Why then, my people, do you turn away from me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to me.

The people of Israel are as stubborn as mules. How can I feed them like lambs in a meadow?

They insist on turning away from me. They will cry out because of the yoke that is on them, but no one will lift it from them.

Return to the LORD your God, people of Israel. Your sin has made you stumble and fall.

"But my people stubbornly refused to listen. They closed their minds

Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart.

Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.

(SEE 20:12)

The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.

I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.

I am the LORD; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through.

As soon as Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king cut them off with a small knife and threw them into the fire. He kept doing this until the entire scroll was burned up.

But neither the king nor any of his officials who heard all this was afraid or showed any sign of sorrow.

Sin speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts; they reject God and do not have reverence for him.

nor have they learned reverence for God."