1
The LORD says, "If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me!
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Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.
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That is why the rains were held back, and the spring showers did not come. You even look like a prostitute; you have no shame.
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"And now you say to me, 'You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.
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You won't always be angry; you won't be mad at me forever.' Israel, that is what you said, but you did all the evil you could."
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When Josiah was king, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.
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I thought that after she had done all this, she would surely return to me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it all.
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Judah also saw that I divorced Israel and sent her away because she had turned from me and had become a prostitute. But Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, was not afraid. She too became a prostitute
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and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees.
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And after all this, Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, only pretended to return to me; she was not sincere. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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Then the LORD told me that, even though Israel had turned away from him, she had proved to be better than unfaithful Judah.
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He told me to go and say to Israel, "Unfaithful Israel, come back to me. I am merciful and will not be angry; I will not be angry with you forever.
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Only admit that you are guilty and that you have rebelled against the LORD, your God. Confess that under every green tree you have given your love to foreign gods and that you have not obeyed my commands. I, the LORD, have spoken.
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"Unfaithful people, come back; you belong to me. I will take one of you from each town and two from each clan, and I will bring you back to Mount Zion.
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I will give you rulers who obey me, and they will rule you with wisdom and understanding.
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Then when you have become numerous in that land, people will no longer talk about my Covenant Box. They will no longer think about it or remember it; they will not even need it, nor will they make another one.
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When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all nations will gather there to worship me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts tell them.
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Israel will join with Judah, and together they will come from exile in the country in the north and will return to the land that I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession."
19
The LORD says, "Israel, I wanted to accept you as my child and give you a delightful land, the most beautiful land in all the world. I wanted you to call me father and never again turn away from me.
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But like an unfaithful wife, you have not been faithful to me. I, the LORD, have spoken."
21
A noise is heard on the hilltops: it is the people of Israel crying and pleading because they have lived sinful lives and have forgotten the LORD their God.
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Return, all of you who have turned away from the LORD; he will heal you and make you faithful. You say, "Yes, we are coming to the LORD because he is our God.
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We were not helped at all by our pagan worship on the hilltops. Help for Israel comes only from the LORD our God.
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But the worship of Baal, the god of shame, has made us lose flocks and herds, sons and daughters---everything that our ancestors have worked for since ancient times.
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We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God; we have never obeyed his commands."
1
The LORD says, "People of Israel, if you want to turn, then turn back to me. If you are faithful to me and remove the idols I hate,
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it will be right for you to swear by my name. Then all the nations will ask me to bless them, and they will praise me."
3
The LORD says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, "Plow up your unplowed fields; do not plant your seeds among thorns.
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Keep your covenant with me, your LORD, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem. If you don't, my anger will burn like fire because of the evil things you have done. It will burn, and there will be no one to put it out."
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Blow the trumpet throughout the land! Shout loud and clear! Tell the people of Judah and Jerusalem to run to the fortified cities.
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Point the way to Zion! Run for safety! Don't delay! The LORD is bringing disaster and great destruction from the north.
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Like a lion coming from its hiding place, a destroyer of nations has set out. He is coming to destroy Judah. The cities of Judah will be left in ruins, and no one will live in them.
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So put on sackcloth, and weep and wail because the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from Judah.
9
The LORD said, "On that day kings and officials will lose their courage; priests will be shocked and prophets will be astonished."
10
Then I said, "Sovereign LORD, you have completely deceived the people of Jerusalem! You have said there would be peace, but a sword is at their throats."
11
The time is coming when the people of Jerusalem will be told that a scorching wind is blowing in from the desert toward them. It will not be a gentle wind that only blows away the chaff---
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the wind that comes at the LORD's command will be much stronger than that! It is the LORD himself who is pronouncing judgment on his people.
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Look, the enemy is coming like clouds. Their war chariots are like a whirlwind, and their horses are faster than eagles. We are lost! We are doomed!
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Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?
15
Messengers from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim announce the bad news.
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They have come to warn the nations and to tell Jerusalem that enemies are coming from a country far away. These enemies will shout against the cities of Judah
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and will surround Jerusalem like men guarding a field, because her people have rebelled against the LORD. The LORD has spoken.
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Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart.
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The pain! I can't bear the pain! My heart! My heart is beating wildly! I can't keep quiet; I hear the trumpets and the shouts of battle.
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One disaster follows another; the whole country is left in ruins. Suddenly our tents are destroyed; their curtains are torn to pieces.
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How long must I see the battle raging and hear the blasts of trumpets?
22
The LORD says, "My people are stupid; they don't know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good."
23
I looked at the earth---it was a barren waste; at the sky---there was no light.
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I looked at the mountains---they were shaking, and the hills were rocking back and forth.
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I saw that there were no people; even the birds had flown away.
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The fertile land had become a desert; its cities were in ruins because of the LORD's fierce anger.
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(The LORD has said that the whole earth will become a wasteland, but that he will not completely destroy it.)
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The earth will mourn; the sky will grow dark. The LORD has spoken and will not change his mind. He has made his decision and will not turn back.
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At the noise of the cavalry and archers everyone will run away. Some will run to the forest; others will climb up among the rocks. Every town will be left empty, and no one will live in them again.
30
Jerusalem, you are doomed! Why do you dress in scarlet? Why do you put on jewelry and paint your eyes? You are making yourself beautiful for nothing! Your lovers have rejected you and want to kill you.
31
I heard a cry, like a woman in labor, a scream like a woman bearing her first child. It was the cry of Jerusalem gasping for breath, stretching out her hand and saying, "I am doomed! They are coming to kill me!"
1
A man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, became sick. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived.
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(This Mary was the one who poured the perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.)
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The sisters sent Jesus a message: "Lord, your dear friend is sick."
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When Jesus heard it, he said, "The final result of this sickness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory."
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Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
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Yet when he received the news that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.
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Then he said to the disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
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"Teacher," the disciples answered, "just a short time ago the people there wanted to stone you; and are you planning to go back?"
9
Jesus said, "A day has twelve hours, doesn't it? So those who walk in broad daylight do not stumble, for they see the light of this world.
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But if they walk during the night they stumble, because they have no light."
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Jesus said this and then added, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up."
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The disciples answered, "If he is asleep, Lord, he will get well."
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Jesus meant that Lazarus had died, but they thought he meant natural sleep.
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So Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead,
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but for your sake I am glad that I was not with him, so that you will believe. Let us go to him."
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Thomas (called the Twin) said to his fellow disciples, "Let us all go along with the Teacher, so that we may die with him!"
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When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been buried four days before.
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Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
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and many Judeans had come to see Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother's death.
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When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.
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Martha said to Jesus, "If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!
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But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for."
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"Your brother will rise to life," Jesus told her.
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"I know," she replied, "that he will rise to life on the last day."
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Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;
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and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
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"Yes, Lord!" she answered. "I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
28
After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. "The Teacher is here," she told her, "and is asking for you."
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When Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him.
30
(Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.)
31
The people who were in the house with Mary comforting her followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.
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Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. "Lord," she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"
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Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved.
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"Where have you buried him?" he asked them. "Come and see, Lord," they answered.
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"See how much he loved him!" the people said.
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But some of them said, "He gave sight to the blind man, didn't he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?"
38
Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.
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"Take the stone away!" Jesus ordered. Martha, the dead man's sister, answered, "There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!"
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Jesus said to her, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believed?"
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They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, "I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.
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I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me."
43
After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
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He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths, and with a cloth around his face. "Untie him," Jesus told them, "and let him go."
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Many of the people who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did, and they believed in him.
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But some of them returned to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
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So the Pharisees and the chief priests met with the Council and said, "What shall we do? Look at all the miracles this man is performing!
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If we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Roman authorities will take action and destroy our Temple and our nation!"
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One of them, named Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, "What fools you are!
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Don't you realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people, instead of having the whole nation destroyed?"
51
Actually, he did not say this of his own accord; rather, as he was High Priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish people,
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and not only for them, but also to bring together into one body all the scattered people of God.
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From that day on the Jewish authorities made plans to kill Jesus.
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So Jesus did not travel openly in Judea, but left and went to a place near the desert, to a town named Ephraim, where he stayed with the disciples.
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The time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the ritual of purification before the festival.
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They were looking for Jesus, and as they gathered in the Temple, they asked one another, "What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?"
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The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he must report it, so that they could arrest him.
