The Lord Promises Exile (But Also Restoration)

16:10 “When you tell these people about all this,9 they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’ 16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says,10 ‘It is because your ancestors11 rejected me and paid allegiance to12 other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law.13 16:12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me.14 16:13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’ ”

16:14 Yet15 I, the Lord, say:16 “A new time will certainly come.17 People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’ 16:15 But in that time they will affirm them with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.”18

16:16 But for now I, the Lord, say:19 “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks.20 16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.21 16:18 Before I restore them22 I will punish them in full23 for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own24 with their detestable idols.”25

16:19 Then I said,26

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.27

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods—

worthless idols that could not help them at all.28

16:20 Can people make their own gods?

No, what they make are not gods at all.”29

16:21 The Lord said,30

“So I will now let this wicked people know—

I will let them know my mighty power in judgment.

Then they will know that my name is the Lord.”31

17:1 1 The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel

on their stone-hard2 hearts.

It is inscribed with a diamond3 point

on the horns of their altars.4

17:2 Their children are always thinking about5 their6 altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah,7

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

17:3 and on the mountains and in the fields.8

I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder.

I will give it away as the price9 for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

17:4 You will lose your hold on the land10

which I gave to you as a permanent possession.

I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.

For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.”11