Israel's Idolatry Is Condemned

¹Good people die, and no one understands or even cares. But when they die, no calamity can hurt them.

²Those who live good lives find peace and rest in death.

³Come here to be judged, you sinners! You are no better than sorcerers, adulterers, and prostitutes.

⁴Who are you making fun of? Who are you liars jeering at?

⁵You worship the fertility gods by having sex under those sacred trees of yours. You offer your children as sacrifices in the rocky caves near stream beds.

⁶You take smooth stones from there and worship them as gods. You pour out wine as offerings to them and bring them grain offerings. Do you think I am pleased with all this?

⁷You go to the high mountains to offer sacrifices and have sex.

⁸You set up your obscene idols just inside your front doors. You forsake me; you take off your clothes and climb in your large beds with your lovers, whom you pay to sleep with you. And there you satisfy your lust.

⁹You put on your perfumes and ointments and go to worship the god Molech. To find gods to worship, you send messengers far and wide, even to the world of the dead.

¹⁰You wear yourselves out looking for other gods, but you never give up. You think your obscene idols give you strength, and so you never grow weak.

¹¹The Lord says, “Who are these gods that make you afraid, so that you tell me lies and forget me completely? Have you stopped honoring me because I have kept silent for so long?

¹²You think that what you do is right, but I will expose your conduct, and your idols will not be able to help you.

¹³When you cry for help, let those idols of yours save you! A puff of wind will carry them off! But those who trust in me will live in the land and will worship me in my Temple.”

God's Promise of Help and Healing

¹⁴The Lord says, “Let my people return to me. Remove every obstacle from their path! Build the road and make it ready!

¹⁵“I am the high and holy God, who lives forever. I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with people who are humble and repentant, so that I can restore their confidence and hope.

¹⁶I gave my people life, and I will not continue to accuse them or be angry with them forever.

¹⁷I was angry with them because of their sin and greed, and so I punished them and abandoned them. But they were stubborn and kept on going their own way.

¹⁸“I have seen how they acted, but I will heal them. I will lead them and help them, and I will comfort those who mourn.

¹⁹I offer peace to all, both near and far! I will heal my people.

²⁰But evil people are like the restless sea, whose waves never stop rolling in, bringing filth and muck.

²¹There is no safety for sinners,” says the Lord.

True Fasting

¹The Lord says, “Shout as loud as you can! Tell my people Israel about their sins!

²They worship me every day, claiming that they are eager to know my ways and obey my laws. They say they want me to give them just laws and that they take pleasure in worshiping me.”

³The people ask, “Why should we fast if the Lord never notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no attention?” The Lord says to them, “The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers.

⁴Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. Do you think this kind of fasting will make me listen to your prayers?

⁵When you fast, you make yourselves suffer; you bow your heads low like a blade of grass and spread out sackcloth and ashes to lie on. Is that what you call fasting? Do you think I will be pleased with that?

⁶“The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free.

⁷Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.

⁸“Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side.

⁹When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond. “If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word;

¹⁰if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon.

¹¹And I will always guide you and satisfy you with good things. I will keep you strong and well. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring of water that never goes dry.

¹²Your people will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.”

The Reward for Keeping the Sabbath

¹³The Lord says, “If you treat the Sabbath as sacred and do not pursue your own interests on that day; if you value my holy day and honor it by not traveling, working, or talking idly on that day,

¹⁴then you will find the joy that comes from serving me. I will make you honored all over the world, and you will enjoy the land I gave to your ancestor, Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Parable of the Eagles and the Vine

¹The Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “tell the Israelites a parable

³to let them know what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: There was a giant eagle with beautiful feathers and huge wings, spread wide. He flew to the Lebanon Mountains and broke off the top of a cedar tree,

⁴which he carried to a land of commerce and placed in a city of merchants.

⁵Then he took a young plant from the land of Israel and planted it in a fertile field, where there was always water to make it grow.

⁶The plant sprouted and became a low, wide-spreading grapevine. The branches grew upward toward the eagle, and the roots grew deep. The vine was covered with branches and leaves.

⁷“There was another giant eagle with huge wings and thick plumage. And now the vine sent its roots toward him and turned its leaves toward him, in the hope that he would give it more water than there was in the garden where it was growing.

⁸But the vine had already been planted in a fertile, well-watered field so that it could grow leaves and bear grapes and be a magnificent vine.

⁹“So I, the Sovereign Lord, ask: Will this vine live and grow? Won't the first eagle pull it up by its roots, pull off the grapes, and break off the branches and let them wither? It will not take much strength or a mighty nation to pull it up.

¹⁰Yes, it is planted, but will it live and grow? Won't it wither when the east wind strikes it? Won't it wither there where it is growing?”

The Parable Is Explained

¹¹The Lord said to me,

¹²“Ask these rebels if they know what the parable means. Tell them that the king of Babylonia came to Jerusalem and took the king and his officials back with him to Babylonia.

¹³He took one of the king's family, made a treaty with him, and made him swear to be loyal. He took important men as hostages

¹⁴to keep the nation from rising again and to make sure that the treaty would be kept.

¹⁵But the king of Judah rebelled and sent agents to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can he get away with that? He cannot break the treaty and go unpunished!

¹⁶“As surely as I am the living God,” says the Sovereign Lord, “this king will die in Babylonia because he broke his oath and the treaty he had made with the king of Babylonia, who put him on the throne.

¹⁷Even the powerful army of the king of Egypt will not be able to help him fight when the Babylonians build earthworks and dig trenches in order to kill many people.

¹⁸He broke his oath and the treaty he had made. He did all these things, and now he will not escape.”

¹⁹The Sovereign Lord says, “As surely as I am the living God, I will punish him for breaking the treaty which he swore in my name to keep.

²⁰I will spread out a hunter's net and catch him in it. I will take him to Babylonia and punish him there, because he was unfaithful to me.

²¹His best soldiers will be killed in battle, and the survivors will be scattered in every direction. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”

God's Promise of Hope

²²This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I will take the top of a tall cedar and break off a tender sprout; I will plant it on a high mountain,

²³on Israel's highest mountain. It will grow branches and bear seed and become a magnificent cedar. Birds of every kind will live there and find shelter in its shade.

²⁴All the trees in the land will know that I am the Lord. I cut down the tall trees and make small trees grow tall. I wither up the green trees and make the dry trees become green. I, the Lord, have spoken. I will do what I have said I would do.”

Individual Responsibility

¹The Lord spoke to me

²and said, “What is this proverb people keep repeating in the land of Israel? ‘The parents ate the sour grapes, But the children got the sour taste.’

³“As surely as I am the living God,” says the Sovereign Lord, “you will not repeat this proverb in Israel any more.

⁴The life of every person belongs to me, the life of the parent as well as that of the child. The person who sins is the one who will die.

⁵“Suppose there is a truly good man, righteous and honest.

⁶He doesn't worship the idols of the Israelites or eat the sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines. He doesn't seduce another man's wife or have intercourse with a woman during her period.

⁷He doesn't cheat or rob anyone. He returns what a borrower gives him as security; he feeds the hungry and gives clothing to the naked.

⁸He doesn't lend money for profit. He refuses to do evil and gives an honest decision in any dispute.

⁹Such a man obeys my commands and carefully keeps my laws. He is righteous, and he will live,” says the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁰“Then suppose this man has a son who robs and kills, who does any of these things

¹¹that the father never did. He eats sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines and seduces other men's wives.

¹²He cheats the poor, he robs, he keeps what a borrower gives him as security. He goes to pagan shrines, worships disgusting idols,

¹³and lends money for profit. Will he live? No, he will not. He has done all these disgusting things, and so he will die. He will be to blame for his own death.

¹⁴“Now suppose this second man has a son. He sees all the sins his father practiced, but does not follow his example.

¹⁵He doesn't worship the idols of the Israelites or eat the sacrifices offered at forbidden shrines. He doesn't seduce another man's wife

¹⁶or oppress anyone or rob anyone. He returns what a borrower gives him as security. He feeds the hungry and gives clothing to the naked.

¹⁷He refuses to do evil and doesn't lend money for profit. He keeps my laws and obeys my commands. He will not die because of his father's sins, but he will certainly live.

¹⁸His father, on the other hand, cheated and robbed and always did evil to everyone. And so he died because of the sins he himself had committed.

¹⁹“But you ask, ‘Why shouldn't the son suffer because of his father's sins?’ The answer is that the son did what was right and good. He kept my laws and followed them carefully, and so he will certainly live.

²⁰It is the one who sins who will die. A son is not to suffer because of his father's sins, nor a father because of the sins of his son. Good people will be rewarded for doing good, and evil people will suffer for the evil they do.

²¹“If someone evil stops sinning and keeps my laws, if he does what is right and good, he will not die; he will certainly live.

²²All his sins will be forgiven, and he will live, because he did what is right.

²³Do you think I enjoy seeing evil people die?” asks the Sovereign Lord. “No, I would rather see them repent and live.

²⁴“But if a righteous person stops doing good and starts doing all the evil, disgusting things that evil people do, will he go on living? No! None of the good he did will be remembered. He will die because of his unfaithfulness and his sins.

²⁵“But you say, ‘What the Lord does isn't right.’ Listen to me, you Israelites. Do you think my way of doing things isn't right? It is your way that isn't right.

²⁶When a righteous person stops doing good and starts doing evil and then dies, he dies because of the evil he has done.

²⁷When someone evil stops sinning and does what is right and good, he saves his life.

²⁸He realizes what he is doing and stops sinning, so he will certainly not die, but go on living.

²⁹And you Israelites say, ‘What the Lord does isn't right.’ You think my way isn't right, do you? It is your way that isn't right.

³⁰“Now I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you Israelites that I will judge each of you by what you have done. Turn away from all the evil you are doing, and don't let your sin destroy you.

³¹Give up all the evil you have been doing, and get yourselves new minds and hearts. Why do you Israelites want to die?

³²I do not want anyone to die,” says the Sovereign Lord. “Turn away from your sins and live.”

⁵Honest people hate lies, but the words of wicked people are shameful and disgraceful.

⁶Righteousness protects the innocent; wickedness is the downfall of sinners.

⁷Some people pretend to be rich, but have nothing. Others pretend to be poor, but own a fortune.

⁸The rich have to use their money to save their lives, but no one threatens the poor.