31O generation, heed the word of the Lord.

Have I been a wilderness to Israel,

Or a land of thick darkness?

Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam;

We will no longer come to You’?

32Can a virgin forget her ornaments,

Or a bride her attire?

Yet My people have forgotten Me

Days without number.

33How well you prepare your way

To seek love!

Therefore even the wicked women

You have taught your ways.

34Also on your skirts is found

The lifeblood of the innocent poor;

You did not find them breaking in.

But in spite of all these things,

35Yet you said, ‘I am innocent;

Surely His anger is turned away from me.’

Behold, I will enter into judgment with you

Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

36Why do you go around so much

Changing your way?

Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt

As you were put to shame by Assyria.

37From this place also you will go out

With your hands on your head;

For the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,

And you will not prosper with them.”

The Polluted Land

1God says, “If a husband divorces his wife

And she goes from him

And belongs to another man,

Will he still return to her?

Will not that land be completely polluted?

But you are a harlot with many lovers;

Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord.

2“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;

Where have you not been violated?

By the roads you have sat for them

Like an Arab in the desert,

And you have polluted a land

With your harlotry and with your wickedness.

3Therefore the showers have been withheld,

And there has been no spring rain.

Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;

You refused to be ashamed.

4Have you not just now called to Me,

‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth?

5Will He be angry forever?

Will He be indignant to the end?’

Behold, you have spoken

And have done evil things,

And you have had your way.”

Faithless Israel

6Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.

God Invites Repentance

11And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,

‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;

‘I will not look upon you in anger.

For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;

‘I will not be angry forever.

13Only acknowledge your iniquity,

That you have transgressed against the Lord your God

And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,

And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.

14‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;

‘For I am a master to you,

And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,

And I will bring you to Zion.’

15“Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

19“Then I said,

‘How I would set you among My sons

And give you a pleasant land,

The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’

And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,

And not turn away from following Me.’

20Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,

So you have dealt treacherously with Me,

O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.

21A voice is heard on the bare heights,

The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;

Because they have perverted their way,

They have forgotten the Lord their God.

22“Return, O faithless sons,

I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to You;

For You are the Lord our God.

23Surely, the hills are a deception,

A tumult on the mountains.

Surely in the Lord our God

Is the salvation of Israel.

24“But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Judah Threatened with Invasion

1“If you will return, O Israel,” declares the Lord,

“Then you should return to Me.

And if you will put away your detested things from My presence,

And will not waver,

2And you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’

In truth, in justice and in righteousness;

Then the nations will bless themselves in Him,

And in Him they will glory.”

3For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,

“Break up your fallow ground,

And do not sow among thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to the Lord

And remove the foreskins of your heart,

Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Or else My wrath will go forth like fire

And burn with none to quench it,

Because of the evil of your deeds.”

5Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet in the land;

Cry aloud and say,

‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go

Into the fortified cities.’

6Lift up a standard toward Zion!

Seek refuge, do not stand still,

For I am bringing evil from the north,

And great destruction.

7A lion has gone up from his thicket,

And a destroyer of nations has set out;

He has gone out from his place

To make your land a waste.

Your cities will be ruins

Without inhabitant.

8For this, put on sackcloth,

Lament and wail;

For the fierce anger of the Lord

Has not turned back from us.”

9“It shall come about in that day,” declares the Lord, “that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded.”

10Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.”

11In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.

13Behold, he goes up like clouds,

And his chariots like the whirlwind;

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe to us, for we are ruined!”

14Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,

That you may be saved.

How long will your wicked thoughts

Lodge within you?

15For a voice declares from Dan,

And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

16“Report it to the nations, now!

Proclaim over Jerusalem,

‘Besiegers come from a far country,

And lift their voices against the cities of Judah.

17Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about,

Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the Lord.

18Your ways and your deeds

Have brought these things to you.

This is your evil. How bitter!

How it has touched your heart!”

Thankfulness for Spiritual Attainments

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; 7just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 8and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

9For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

The Incomparable Christ

13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

PSALM 76

The Victorious Power of the God of Jacob.

For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph, a Song.

1God is known in Judah;

His name is great in Israel.

2His tabernacle is in Salem;

His dwelling place also is in Zion.

3There He broke the flaming arrows,

The shield and the sword and the weapons of war. Selah.

4You are resplendent,

More majestic than the mountains of prey.

5The stouthearted were plundered,

They sank into sleep;

And none of the warriors could use his hands.

6At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep.

7You, even You, are to be feared;

And who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?

8You caused judgment to be heard from heaven;

The earth feared and was still

9When God arose to judgment,

To save all the humble of the earth. Selah.

10For the wrath of man shall praise You;

With a remnant of wrath You will gird Yourself.

11Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them;

Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared.

12He will cut off the spirit of princes;

He is feared by the kings of the earth.

21My son, fear the Lord and the king;

Do not associate with those who are given to change,

22For their calamity will rise suddenly,

And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?