“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ¹  the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ²  the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ³  the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ⁴  They have decided to behave this way; ⁵  they enjoy these disgusting practices. ⁶ 

Tell me! Present the evidence! ¹  Let them consult with one another! Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; ²  there is none but me.

¹ Come, let’s consider your options,” ²  says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become ³  white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become ⁴  white like wool. ⁵ 

So now, listen to this, O one who lives so lavishly, ¹  who lives securely, who says to herself, ²  ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ³  I will never have to live as a widow; I will never lose my children.’ ⁴ 

When you cry out for help, let your idols ¹  help you! The wind blows them all away, ²  a breeze carries them away. ³  But the one who looks to me for help ⁴  will inherit the land and will have access to ⁵  my holy mountain.”

¹ “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: ²  This year you will eat what grows wild, ³  and next year ⁴  what grows on its own. But the year after that ⁵  you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ⁶ 

For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky – he is the true God, ¹  the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, ²  he formed it to be inhabited – “I am the Lord, I have no peer.

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud, the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ¹  Come back to me, for I protect ²  you.”

everyone who belongs to me, ¹  whom I created for my glory, whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ¹  you did not present to me ²  the fat of your sacrifices. Yet you burdened me with your sins; you made me weary with your evil deeds. ³ 

Behind the door and doorpost you put your symbols. ¹  Indeed, ²  you depart from me ³  and go up and invite them into bed with you. ⁴  You purchase favors from them, ⁵  you love their bed, and gaze longingly ⁶  on their genitals. ⁷ 

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

“But you did not call for me, O Jacob; you did not long ¹  for me, O Israel.

The officials of Zoan are fools, the officials of Memphis ¹  are misled; the rulers ²  of her tribes lead Egypt astray.

For a short time your special ¹  nation possessed a land, ²  but then our adversaries knocked down ³  your holy sanctuary.

¹ All your leaders ran away together – they fled to a distant place; all your refugees ²  were captured together – they were captured without a single arrow being shot. ³ 

For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹  me.

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. ¹