I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I led you through the wilderness for forty years so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.

and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord. He is called the God who commands armies!

“I have chosen you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: “Certainly the time is approaching when you will be carried away in baskets, every last one of you in fishermen’s pots.

“I destroyed your crops with blight and disease. Locusts kept devouring your orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.

“Look! I am about to bring a nation against you, family of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress you all the way from Lebo-Hamath to the Stream of the Arabah.”