42So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more. 43Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” declares the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.

44“Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. 47Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. 48As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. 50Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. 51Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed. 52Also bear your disgrace in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous.

53“Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, 54in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation to them. 55Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state. 56As the name of your sister Sodom was not heard from your lips in your day of pride, 57before your wickedness was uncovered, so now you have become the reproach of the daughters of Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines—those surrounding you who despise you. 58You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” the Lord declares. 59For thus says the Lord God, “I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

The Covenant Remembered

60“Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, 63so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord God declares.

Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine

1Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2“Son of man, propound a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel, 3saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “A great eagle with great wings, long pinions and a full plumage of many colors came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar. 4He plucked off the topmost of its young twigs and brought it to a land of merchants; he set it in a city of traders. 5He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil. He placed it beside abundant waters; he set it like a willow. 6Then it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine with its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and yielded shoots and sent out branches.

7“But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and sent out its branches toward him from the beds where it was planted, that he might water it. 8It was planted in good soil beside abundant waters, that it might yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.” ’ 9Say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers—so that all its sprouting leaves wither? And neither by great strength nor by many people can it be raised from its roots again. 10Behold, though it is planted, will it thrive? Will it not completely wither as soon as the east wind strikes it—wither on the beds where it grew?” ’ ”

Zedekiah’s Rebellion

11Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 12“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Say, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and princes and brought them to him in Babylon. 13He took one of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land, 14that the kingdom might be in subjection, not exalting itself, but keeping his covenant that it might continue. 15But he rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant and escape? 16As I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Surely in the country of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, in Babylon he shall die. 17Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in the war, when they cast up ramps and build siege walls to cut off many lives. 18Now he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he pledged his allegiance, yet did all these things; he shall not escape.’ ” 19Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “As I live, surely My oath which he despised and My covenant which he broke, I will inflict on his head. 20I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. Then I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there regarding the unfaithful act which he has committed against Me. 21All the choice men in all his troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to every wind; and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”

22Thus says the Lord God, “I will also take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out; I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a stately cedar. And birds of every kind will nest under it; they will nest in the shade of its branches. 24All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”

A Better Ministry

1Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” 6But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

A New Covenant

7For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8For finding fault with them, He says,

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,

When I will effect a new covenant

With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

9Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

On the day when I took them by the hand

To lead them out of the land of Egypt;

For they did not continue in My covenant,

And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

After those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws into their minds,

And I will write them on their hearts.

And I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.

11And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,

And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

For all will know Me,

From the least to the greatest of them.

12For I will be merciful to their iniquities,

And I will remember their sins no more.”

13When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

13They quickly forgot His works;

They did not wait for His counsel,

14But craved intensely in the wilderness,

And tempted God in the desert.

15So He gave them their request,

But sent a wasting disease among them.

16When they became envious of Moses in the camp,

And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,

17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,

And engulfed the company of Abiram.

18And a fire blazed up in their company;

The flame consumed the wicked.

19They made a calf in Horeb

And worshiped a molten image.

20Thus they exchanged their glory

For the image of an ox that eats grass.

21They forgot God their Savior,

Who had done great things in Egypt,

22Wonders in the land of Ham

And awesome things by the Red Sea.

23Therefore He said that He would destroy them,

Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him,

To turn away His wrath from destroying them.

24Then they despised the pleasant land;

They did not believe in His word,

25But grumbled in their tents;

They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

26Therefore He swore to them

That He would cast them down in the wilderness,

27And that He would cast their seed among the nations

And scatter them in the lands.

28They joined themselves also to Baal-peor,

And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

29Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,

And the plague broke out among them.

30Then Phinehas stood up and interposed,

And so the plague was stayed.

31And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,

To all generations forever.

7A sated man loathes honey,

But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.

8Like a bird that wanders from her nest,

So is a man who wanders from his home.

9Oil and perfume make the heart glad,

So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.