'My People' in the Bible

Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?(But they were not gods!)Yet My people have exchanged their Gloryfor useless idols.

For My people have committed a double evil:They have abandoned Me,the fountain of living water,and dug cisterns for themselves,cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

Evil generation,pay attention to the word of the Lord!Have I been a wilderness to Israelor a land of dense darkness?Why do My people claim,“We will go where we want;we will no longer come to You”?

Can a young woman forget her jewelryor a bride her wedding sash?Yet My people have forgotten Mefor countless days.

“For My people are fools;they do not know Me.They are foolish children,without understanding.They are skilled in doing what is evil,but they do not know how to do what is good.”

for wicked men live among My people.They watch like fowlers lying in wait.They set a trap;they catch men.

The prophets prophesy falsely,and the priests rule by their own authority.My people love it like this.But what will you do at the end of it?

They have treated My people’s brokenness superficially,claiming, “Peace, peace,”when there is no peace.

I have appointed you to be an assayer among My people—a refiner—so you may know and assay their way of life.

“But return to My place that was at Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel.

However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.

Even the stork in the skyknows her seasons.The turtledove, swallow, and craneare aware of their migration,but My people do not knowthe requirements of the Lord.

If only I had a traveler’s lodging placein the wilderness,I would abandon my peopleand depart from them,for they are all adulterers,a solemn assembly of treacherous people.

which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.’ I declared: ‘Obey Me, and do everything that I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God,’

This is what the Lord says: “Concerning all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them.

If they will diligently learn the ways of My people—to swear by My name, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal—they will be built up among My people.

Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to Me”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“so that they might be My people for My fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey.

You are to speak this word to them:Let my eyes overflow with tears;day and night may they not stop,for the virgin daughter of my peoplehas been destroyed by a great disaster,an extremely severe wound.

I scattered them with a winnowing forkat the gates of the land.I made them childless; I destroyed My people.They would not turn from their ways.

Yet My people have forgotten Me.They burn incense to false idolsthat make them stumble in their wayson the ancient roadsand walk on new paths, not the highway.

“Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd My people: You have scattered My flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I will attend to you because of your evil acts”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

Among the prophets of SamariaI saw something disgusting:They prophesied by Baaland led My people Israel astray.

If they had really stood in My council,they would have enabled My people to hear My wordsand would have turned them back from their evil waysand their evil deeds.

Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause My people to forget My name as their fathers forgot My name through Baal worship.

I am against those who prophesy false dreams”—the Lord’s declaration—“telling them and leading My people astray with their falsehoods and their boasting. It was not I who sent or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am Yahweh. They will be My people, and I will be their God because they will return to Me with all their heart.

this is what the Lord says: I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. There will not be even one of his descendants living among these people, nor will any ever see the good that I will bring to My people”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”

for the days are certainly coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors and they will possess it.”

You will be My people,and I will be your God.

“At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.”

I will refresh the priests with an abundance,and My people will be satisfied with My goodness.This is the Lord’s declaration.

“Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

They will be My people, and I will be their God.

“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families He had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.

My people are lost sheep;their shepherds have led them astray,guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.They have wandered from mountain to hill;they have forgotten their resting place.

Come out from among her, My people!Save your lives, each of you,from the Lord’s burning anger.