גַּם

O LORD, You will establish peace for us. For all that we have accomplished, You have done for us.

These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.

This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

…everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”

For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

They will all be put to shame and humiliated; the makers of idols will depart together in disgrace.

Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”

You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

Your portion is among the smooth stones of the valley; indeed, they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering and offered a grain offering. Should I relent because of these?

On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.

Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.

So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

Who has heard of such as this? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.

“And I will select some of them as priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.

How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.

Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

Moreover, you will leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not prosper by their help.”

She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

…a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.”

“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike.

Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.

Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD.

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.

Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

Even your brothers—your own father’s household—even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.

Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”

“For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.