Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.

and the LORD has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments;

For the LORD's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

He shows his word to Jacob; his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.

We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.

All

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. Of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north," says the LORD; "and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the families that do not call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation."

because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.

It will be, that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn't go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

Therefore

kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but do not come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary." Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you," says the Lord GOD.

He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing on us a great calamity; for under the whole heaven such has not been done as has been done on Jerusalem.

Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

That servant, who knew his lord's will, and did not prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes,

suffering and distress, on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who do not obey the Good News of God?

Punish

"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will punish all those who are circumcised in uncircumcision:

therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

General references

but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.

then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'A disaster, a unique disaster; behold, it comes.

But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.