Be ye not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus says LORD of hosts: Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings, but they did not hear, nor hearken to me, says LORD.

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they turned and said, Like as LORD of hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our doings,

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?

For thus says LORD of hosts: As I thought to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says LORD of hosts, and I did not relent,

Turn you back to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will render double to thee.