The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet will I gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered."

His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil.

Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.

We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

"Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

The Spirit of the LORD is on me; because he has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and an opening of the eyes to those who are bound;

Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed."

For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

For he said, "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:" so he was their Savior.

Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.

For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

But now, LORD, you are our Father, and we are clay, and you are our potter; and we all are the work of your hands.

Do not be furious, LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people.

Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.

who say, Stand by yourself, do not come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.

so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

Thus says the LORD, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

"How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

"But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says the LORD, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

"Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding." "Behold, we have come to you; for you are the LORD our God.

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us. For we are ruined.

As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" says the LORD.

Destruction on destruction is proclaimed; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.

"For my people are foolish, they do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you dress yourselves with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you, they seek your life.

"Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.

Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.

Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased.

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

"Go up on her walls, and destroy; but do not make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not the LORD's.

Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.

"Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us. For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.'

They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.'"

Do not go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror, are on every side."

"They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.

The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

Do not trust in lying words, saying, "The LORD's temple, The LORD's temple, The LORD's temple, are these."

and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are delivered"; that you may do all these abominations?

How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?" But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what kind of wisdom is in them?

"'The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.'

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them. For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."

"They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me," says the LORD.

"For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone."

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, 'How are we ruined. We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'"

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

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."

Thus says the LORD, "Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and do not speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Do not be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

"There is none like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols. it is but a stock.

There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.

But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.

They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of the LORD: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.'

The LORD called your name, "A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit." With the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.

You are righteous, LORD, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, "He shall not see our latter end."

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?

Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

The cities toward the Negev are shut, and there is no one to open them: Judah is carried away into exile, all of it; it is wholly carried away into exile.'"

If you say in your heart, 'Why are these things come on me?' for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.

Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads.

"Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name's sake, LORD; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."

If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword. and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine. For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.'"

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things."

It shall happen, when they tell you, 'Where shall we go forth?' Then you shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land:

For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?'"