10. “Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy the grapevines,leaving a scattered few alive.Strip the branches from the vines,for these people do not belong to the lord.
11. The people of Israel and Judahare full of treachery against me,”says the lord.
12. “They have lied about the lordand said, ‘He won’t bother us!No disasters will come upon us.There will be no war or famine.
13. God’s prophets are all windbagswho don’t really speak for him.Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’”
14. Therefore, this is what the lord God of Heaven’s Armies says:“Because the people are talking like this,my messages will flame out of your mouthand burn the people like kindling wood.
15. O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you,”says the lord.“It is a mighty nation,an ancient nation,a people whose language you do not know,whose speech you cannot understand.
16. Their weapons are deadly;their warriors are mighty.
17. They will devour the food of your harvest;they will devour your sons and daughters.They will devour your flocks and herds;they will devour your grapes and figs.And they will destroy your fortified towns,which you think are so safe.
18. “Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,” says the lord.
19. “And when your people ask, ‘Why did the lord our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’
20. “Make this announcement to Israel,and say this to Judah:
21. Listen, you foolish and senseless people,with eyes that do not seeand ears that do not hear.
22. Have you no respect for me?Why don’t you tremble in my presence?I, the lord, define the ocean’s sandy shorelineas an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.The waves may toss and roar,but they can never pass the boundaries I set.
23. But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.They have turned away and abandoned me.
24. They do not say from the heart,‘Let us live in awe of the lord our God,for he gives us rain each spring and fall,assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’