Luke 15:16

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”

“Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.

You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.

I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.

We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”

For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them, and departed.

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

“Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags.

David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.”

You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you delicately in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing.

An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.

But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”

For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.

whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

“Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

They will not labor in vain nor give birth for calamity; for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed and their descendants with them.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return.

It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says Yahweh, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;

The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

The shepherds will have no way to flee. The leader of the flock will have no escape.

For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”

Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills.

They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls or fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.

“ ‘ “But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously dressed, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.

By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.

But shun empty chatter, for it will go further in ungodliness,

At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.

but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,

and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.

“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.

I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.

“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.

Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.

Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help.

and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

“Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don’t have a man’s understanding.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”

Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.

They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

“But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.

There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines.

Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet.

through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,

For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.