7. The Lord said, “Tell me why I should forgive you.Your children have left me.They have made promises to idols that are not gods at all.I gave your children everything they needed.But they still were like an unfaithful wife to me.They spent much time in houses of prostitutes.
8. They are like well-fed, male horses filled with sexual desire.Each one wants another man’s wife.
9. Shouldn’t I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?” says the Lord.“I should give a nation such as this the punishment it deserves.
10. “Go along and cut down Judah’s vineyards.But do not completely destroy them.Cut off all her people as if they were branches.Do it because they do not belong to the Lord.
11. The families of Israel and Judahhave been completely unfaithful to me,” says the Lord!
12. Those people have lied about the Lord.They have said, “The Lord will not do anything to us!Nothing bad will happen to us.We will never see war or hunger.
13. The prophets are like an empty wind.The word of God is not in them.Let these bad things they say happen to them.”
14. So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:“The people said I would not punish them.So, Jeremiah, the words I give you will be like fire.And these people will be like wood the fire burns up.