<p class="poetry"><sc>Lordsc>, I know you look for faithfulness.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.p> <p class="poetry">They have become as hardheaded as a rock.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They refuse to change their ways.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">That is why the rains have been withheld,p> <p class="poetry">and the spring rains have not come.p> <p class="poetry">Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.p>

<p class="poetry">Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">continually turn away from me in apostasy?p> <p class="poetry">They hold fast to their deception.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They refuse to turn back to me.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">They do one act of violence after another,p> <p class="poetry">and one deceitful thing after another.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They refuse to pay attention to me,&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?p> <p class="poetry">Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?p> <p class="poetry">Will you let me down when I need youp> <p class="poetry">like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, tell them that the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says<n id="1" /> &#8216;You most certainly must drink it!<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="1" /> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;The people of Israel are oppressed.p> <p class="poetry">So too are the people of Judah.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners.p> <p class="poetry">They refuse to set them free.p>

They have gone back to the evil ways<n id="1" /> of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to<n id="2" /> other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah<n id="3" /> have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;A sound is heard in Ramah,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">a sound of crying in bitter grief.p> <p class="poetry">It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her childrenp> <p class="poetry">and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>