1. The Lord says, “I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.I was found by those who were not asking me for help.I said, ‘Here I am. Here I am,’to a nation that was not praying to me.
2. All day long I stood ready to acceptpeople who turned against me,but the way they continue to live is not good;they do anything they want to do.
3. Right in front of methey continue to do things that make me angry.They offer sacrifices to their gods in their gardens,and they burn incense on altars of brick.
4. They sit among the gravesand spend their nights waiting to get messages from the dead.They eat the meat of pigs,and their pots are full of soup made from meat that is wrong to eat.
5. But they tell others, ‘Stay away, and don’t come near me.I am too holy for you.’These people are like smoke in my nose.Like a fire that burns all the time, they continue to make me angry.
6. “Look, it is written here before me.I will not be quiet; instead, I will repay you in full.I will punish you for what you have done.
7. I will punish you for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,”says the Lord.“They burned incense to gods on the mountainsand shamed me on those hills.So I will punish them as they should be punishedfor what they did.”
8. This is what the Lord says:“When there is juice left in the grapes,people do not destroy them,because they know there is good left in them.So I will do the same thing to my servants—I will not completely destroy them.