'My People' in the Bible

Hath a nation changed gods? (And they are no gods!) And My people hath changed its honour For that which doth not profit.

For two evils hath My people done, Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves wells -- broken wells, That contain not the waters.

O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah: A wilderness have I been to Israel? A land of thick darkness? Wherefore have My people said, 'We mourned, We come not in again unto Thee.'

Doth a virgin forget her ornaments? A bride her bands? And My people have forgotten Me days without number.

At that time it is said of this people, And of Jerusalem: 'A dry wind of high places in the wilderness,' The way of the daughter of My people, (Not for winnowing, nor for cleansing,)

For my people are foolish, me they have not known, Foolish sons are they, yea, they are not intelligent, Wise are they to do evil, And to do good they have not known.

For the wicked have been found among My people. It looketh about the covering of snares, They have set up a trap -- men they capture.

The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved it so, And what do they at its latter end?

And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' and there is no peace.

O daughter of My people, Gird on sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes, The mourning of an only one make for thee, A lamentation most bitter, For suddenly come doth the spoiler against us.

A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way.

But go ye, I pray you, Unto My place that is in Shiloh, Where I caused My name to dwell at first, And see that which I have done to it, For the wickedness of My people Israel.

Even a stork in the heavens hath known her seasons, And turtle, and swallow, and crane, Have watched the time of their coming, And -- My people have not known the judgment of Jehovah.

And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, Peace, peace! and there is no peace.

Lo, the voice of a cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off, Is Jehovah not in Zion? is her king not in her? Wherefore have they provoked Me with their graven images, With the vanities of a foreigner?

For a breach of the daughter of my people have I been broken, I have been black, astonishment hath seized me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? For wherefore hath not the health of the daughter of my people gone up?

Who doth make my head waters, And mine eye a fountain of tears? And I weep by day and by night, For the wounded of the daughter of my people.

Who doth give me in a wilderness A lodging-place of travellers? And I leave my people, and go from them, For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous ones.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people?

Thus said Jehovah concerning all my evil neighbours, who are striking against the inheritance that I caused my people -- Israel -- to inherit: 'Lo, I am plucking them from off their ground, And the house of Judah I pluck out of their midst.

And it hath come to pass, If they learn well the ways of My people, To swear by My name, 'Jehovah liveth,' As they taught My people to swear by Baal, Then they have been built up in the midst of My people.

And thou hast said unto them this word: Tears come down mine eyes night and day, And they do not cease, For, with a great breach, Broken hath been the virgin daughter of my people, A very grievous stroke.

And I scatter them with a fan, in the gates the land, I bereaved, I have destroyed My people, From their ways they turned not back.

But My people have forgotten Me, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways -- paths of old, To walk in paths -- a way not raised up,

Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Against the shepherds who feed My people, Ye have scattered My flock, and drive them away, And have not inspected them, Lo, I am charging on you the evil of your doings, An affirmation of Jehovah.

And in prophets of Samaria I have seen folly, They have prophesied by Baal, And cause my people -- Israel -- to err.

But -- if they stood in My counsel, Then they cause My people to hear My words, And they turn them back from their evil way, And from the evil of their doings.

Who are devising to cause My people To forget My name by their dreams, That they recount each to his neighbour, As their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

Lo, I am against the prophets of false dreams, An affirmation of Jehovah, And they recount them, and cause my people to err, By their falsehoods, and by their instability, And I -- I have not sent them, Nor have I commanded them, And they are not at all profitable to this people, An affirmation of Jehovah.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am seeing after Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and after his seed, he hath none dwelling in the midst of this people, nor doth he look on the good that I am doing to My people -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- for apostasy he hath spoken against Jehovah.'

For, lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and I have turned back to the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, said Jehovah, and I have caused them to turn back unto the land that I gave to their fathers, and they do possess it.'

And satisfied the soul of the priests with fatness, And My people with My goodness are satisfied, An affirmation of Jehovah.

Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise -- So that they are no more a people before them!

A perishing flock hath My people been, Their shepherds have caused them to err, To the mountains causing them to go back, From mountain unto hill they have gone, They have forgotten their crouching-place.

Go forth from its midst, O My people, And deliver ye, each his soul, Because of the fierceness of the anger of Jehovah,