Is this the one who made the world like a desert, who ruined its cities, and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?"'

You counted the houses in Jerusalem, and demolished houses so you could have material to reinforce the wall.

I am not angry. I wish I could confront some thorns and briers! Then I would march against them for battle; I would set them all on fire,

They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.

Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice; its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.

Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ahead of time, so we could say, 'He's correct'? Indeed, none of them decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything!

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, 'My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.'

Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, 'Yes, I know about them.'

Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? Even if mothers were to forget, I could never forget you!

Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage could cross over?