and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’”

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.

Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; now I announce new events. Before they begin to occur, I reveal them to you.”

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.

If anyone dares to challenge you, it will not be my doing! Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated.

Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.

But those who harvest the grain will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”

But they rebelled and offended his holy Spirit, so he turned into an enemy and fought against them.

These people continually and blatantly offend me as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards and burn incense on brick altars.

You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path.

“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.”

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria.

Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.

They will surround Jerusalem like men guarding a field because they have rebelled against me,” says the Lord.

“I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

Kings will come against it with their armies. They will encamp in siege all around it. Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him.

They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’ But everything is not all right!

The people cry out, “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.

They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people have suffered. They say, “Everything will be all right!” But everything is not all right!