1. The Lord said, “I was ready to answer my people's prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I was always ready to answer, ‘Here I am; I will help you.’
2. I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way.
3. They shamelessly keep on making me angry. They offer pagan sacrifices in sacred gardens and burn incense on pagan altars.
4. At night they go to caves and tombs to consult the spirits of the dead. They eat pork and drink broth made from meat offered in pagan sacrifices.
5. And then they say to others, ‘Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!’ I cannot stand people like that — my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out.
6. “I have already decided on their punishment, and their sentence is written down. I will not overlook what they have done, but will repay them