In anguish, tears running down my cheeks, I write down these words: Is it true that you have become a nation of pretenders? Like a rebellious cow, so has rebelled the children of Yisra’el. In a trackless wasteland do you wander, turned aside from the ancient paths, the paths of righteousness. Your cities have become a wasteland, ruins invoking derisive hissing. Your enemies devastate you time and again, while, in the lands of your foes, you moan and cry out because of the heavy yoke. You call out, but יהוה does not listen; you cry out, but יהוה does not answer you because of your evil deeds. He has hidden His face from you, so that you have become food, booty, and plunder. None shall deliver you, because of your evil, in which you broke your covenant with יהוה and refused His Torah, causing your fear to become the commandments of learned men, thus becoming utterly guilty.
Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you shameless nation, a people gone astray, for you flatter yourself with words, and mediators of deceit who lead you astray, your fear has truly become the commandments of learned men. Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you shameless nation, before the fierce anger of יהוה come upon you, yes, before the day of the anger of יהוה come upon you. In the ruin that is the valley of Hinnom you shall find yourself, wasted.
With a double heart I have seen you seek יהוה. You have become a root producing poison and wormwood. With a willful heart you look about and seek יהוה in falsehoods. You have set the stumbling block of your iniquity before yourselves, seeking יהוה through the words of your lying prophets corrupted by error, making your fear one that truly become the commandments of learned men. With mocking lips and strange tongue do they speak unto you, my people, the children of Yisra’el, saying that which you want to hear, while ignoring the very words of יהוה.
The true prophets of יהוה have chastised you, while these lying prophets of yours merely tell you words of pleasure. Know that upon all those who spurn Him, He does pass judgment! God will punish your deeds and His wrath will burn against all your misdeeds, for you are a people without insight, a people wandering in counsel, for there is no insight to be found in you. For you have sought flattery, choosing travesties of the truth; for you have looked for ways to subvert the Torah of יהוה, favoring the fine neck. You have called the unrighteous righteous, and the righteous unrighteous. You have overstepped the covenant, subverted the Torah, and have conspired together to murder the innocent. You have robbed the poor of God’s people, making widows wealth your booty and killing orphans. You distinguish not between that which is defiled and that which is pure, between that which is holy and that which is profane, you love not your own brothers and sisters as you love self, nor do you support the poor, the needy, and those who sojourn amongst you.
Such is the fate for all who reject the commandments of יהוה, whether old or young, who have turned their thoughts to false philosophies and lived according to their own willful hearts; they have no part in the household of the Torah, because they have uttered lies against the Torah and rejected the true covenant that יהוה made with our ancestors at Mount Horev.
But, afterward, if they will return to יהוה with all their heart, and with all their being, obeying all the words of the Torah, then He will deliver them from the power of their enemies and redeem them from being ground under foot by those who despise them. He will bring them to the land of their ancestors, so He will redeem them and multiply them, rejoicing over them, and He will be their God and they His people.
Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you shameless nation, a people gone astray, for you flatter yourself with words, and mediators of deceit who lead you astray, your fear has truly become the commandments of learned men. Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you shameless nation, before the fierce anger of יהוה come upon you, yes, before the day of the anger of יהוה come upon you. In the ruin that is the valley of Hinnom you shall find yourself, wasted.
With a double heart I have seen you seek יהוה. You have become a root producing poison and wormwood. With a willful heart you look about and seek יהוה in falsehoods. You have set the stumbling block of your iniquity before yourselves, seeking יהוה through the words of your lying prophets corrupted by error, making your fear one that truly become the commandments of learned men. With mocking lips and strange tongue do they speak unto you, my people, the children of Yisra’el, saying that which you want to hear, while ignoring the very words of יהוה.
The true prophets of יהוה have chastised you, while these lying prophets of yours merely tell you words of pleasure. Know that upon all those who spurn Him, He does pass judgment! God will punish your deeds and His wrath will burn against all your misdeeds, for you are a people without insight, a people wandering in counsel, for there is no insight to be found in you. For you have sought flattery, choosing travesties of the truth; for you have looked for ways to subvert the Torah of יהוה, favoring the fine neck. You have called the unrighteous righteous, and the righteous unrighteous. You have overstepped the covenant, subverted the Torah, and have conspired together to murder the innocent. You have robbed the poor of God’s people, making widows wealth your booty and killing orphans. You distinguish not between that which is defiled and that which is pure, between that which is holy and that which is profane, you love not your own brothers and sisters as you love self, nor do you support the poor, the needy, and those who sojourn amongst you.
Such is the fate for all who reject the commandments of יהוה, whether old or young, who have turned their thoughts to false philosophies and lived according to their own willful hearts; they have no part in the household of the Torah, because they have uttered lies against the Torah and rejected the true covenant that יהוה made with our ancestors at Mount Horev.
But, afterward, if they will return to יהוה with all their heart, and with all their being, obeying all the words of the Torah, then He will deliver them from the power of their enemies and redeem them from being ground under foot by those who despise them. He will bring them to the land of their ancestors, so He will redeem them and multiply them, rejoicing over them, and He will be their God and they His people.
