1. The lord says,“I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’to a nation that did not call on my name.
2. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people.But they follow their own evil pathsand their own crooked schemes.
3. All day long they insult me to my faceby worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.They burn incense on pagan altars.
4. At night they go out among the graves,worshiping the dead.They eat the flesh of pigsand make stews with other forbidden foods.
5. Yet they say to each other,‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me!I am holier than you!’These people are a stench in my nostrils,an acrid smell that never goes away.
6. “Look, my decree is written out in front of me:I will not stand silent;I will repay them in full!Yes, I will repay them—
7. both for their own sinsand for those of their ancestors,”says the lord.“For they also burned incense on the mountainsand insulted me on the hills.I will pay them back in full!
8. “But I will not destroy them all,”says the lord.“For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones(and someone will say, ‘Don’t throw them all away—some of those grapes are good!’),so I will not destroy all Israel.For I still have true servants there.
9. I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israeland of Judah to possess my land.Those I choose will inherit it,and my servants will live there.
10. The plain of Sharon will again be filled with flocksfor my people who have searched for me,and the valley of Achor will be a place to pasture herds.
11. “But because the rest of you have forsaken the lordand have forgotten his Temple,and because you have prepared feasts to honor the god of Fateand have offered mixed wine to the god of Destiny,
12. now I will ‘destine’ you for the sword.All of you will bow down before the executioner.For when I called, you did not answer.When I spoke, you did not listen.You deliberately sinned—before my very eyes—and chose to do what you know I despise.”