I have been calling you, inviting you to come, but you would not listen. You paid no attention to me.

So when you get into trouble, I will laugh at you. I will make fun of you when terror strikes---

Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me.

You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you.

Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern.

and you will say, "Why would I never learn? Why would I never let anyone correct me?

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.

Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the LORD is saying.

This, now, is what the Sovereign LORD says: "I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, 'Faith that is firm is also patient.'

The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome.

You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in.

Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the LORD Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.

When the Pharisees heard all this, they made fun of Jesus, because they loved money.

The people stood there watching while the Jewish leaders made fun of him: "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah whom God has chosen!"

Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses.

For we know who said, "I will take revenge, I will repay"; and who also said, "The Lord will judge his people."

For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved.' "

Anyone who does not obey that prophet shall be separated from God's people and destroyed.'

We heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will tear down the Temple and change all the customs which have come down to us from Moses!"

'Go,' the Lord said to me, 'for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "

My chosen people will use your name as a curse. I, the Sovereign LORD, will put you to death. But I will give a new name to those who obey me.

And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly. The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared.

That ruler will have a firm agreement with many people for seven years, and when half this time is past, he will put an end to sacrifices and offerings. The Awful Horror will be placed on the highest point of the Temple and will remain there until the one who put it there meets the end which God has prepared for him."

When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to the people following him, "I tell you, I have never found anyone in Israel with faith like this.

I assure you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of heaven.

"He will certainly kill those evil men," they answered, "and rent the vineyard out to other tenants, who will give him his share of the harvest at the right time."

"And so I tell you," added Jesus, "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits."

The king was very angry; so he sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city.

Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find.'

And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town.

I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day!

And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty.

saying, "If you only knew today what is needed for peace! But now you cannot see it!

They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!"

"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that it will soon be destroyed.

For those will be 'The Days of Punishment,' to make come true all that the Scriptures say.

Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.

People will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth, for the powers in space will be driven from their courses.

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

And David says, "May they be caught and trapped at their feasts; may they fall, may they be punished!

I ask, then: When the Jews stumbled, did they fall to their ruin? By no means! Because they sinned, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous of them.

I am speaking now to you Gentiles: As long as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I will take pride in my work.

God revealed his secret plan and made it known to me. (I have written briefly about this,

In past times human beings were not told this secret, but God has revealed it now by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets.

I was made a servant of the gospel by God's special gift, which he gave me through the working of his power.

which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people.

God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God.

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

The time has come for judgment to begin, and God's own people are the first to be judged. If it starts with us, how will it end with those who do not believe the Good News from God?