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.

Come back to me, you wayward people. I want to cure your waywardness. Say, ‘Here we are. We come to you because you are the Lord our God.

“‘But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you.

You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?

‘So pay attention to what I, the Lord, have said, all you exiles whom I have sent to Babylon from Jerusalem.’

But if you refuse to surrender, the Lord has shown me a vision of what will happen. Here is what I saw:

“You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’

“Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms.

As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you up with them, so you cannot go out among them.

Bring out your belongings packed for exile during the day while they are watching. And go out at evening, while they are watching, as if for exile.

“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’

“As for you, son of man, turn toward the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their imagination. Prophesy against them

“And you, son of man, groan with an aching heart and bitterness; groan before their eyes.

“As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things you are doing mean for us?”

Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you – though you are a man and not a god – when you are in the power of those who wound you?

You were blameless in your behavior from the day you were created, until sin was discovered in you.