Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued?

Yet, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor.

Remember these things, O Jacob, O Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you to be my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you!

For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our protector from ancient times.

Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent; the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.

Remind me of what happened! Let’s debate! You, prove to me that you are right!

Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden, O God of Israel, deliverer!

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.”

But approach, you sons of omen readers, you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes!

So this is what the sovereign Lord says: “Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry! Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty! Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated!

All of them respond to you, saying: ‘You too have become weak like us! You have become just like us!

“You, my servant Israel, Jacob whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend,

You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away; the wind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the Lord; you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Those who trust in idols will turn back and be utterly humiliated, those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

I did this because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze.

You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.

Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; you will wail because your spirits will be crushed.

“O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky and the earth.

The Lord comes to pronounce judgment on the leaders of his people and their officials. He says, “It is you who have ruined the vineyard! You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor.

Here is why this will be so: Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land whose two kings you fear will be desolate.