How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.”
Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.
I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?
“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.
The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?
How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.
How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,
And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.
I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?”
“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.