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8  Turn us again, O God of hosts; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
9  You brought a vine out of Egypt; ♦︎
   you drove out the nations and planted it.
10  You made room around it, ♦︎
   and when it had taken root, it filled the land.
11  The hills were covered with its shadow ♦︎
   and the cedars of God by its boughs.
12  It stretched out its branches to the Sea ♦︎
   and its tendrils to the River.
13  Why then have you broken down its wall, ♦︎
   so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?
14  The wild boar out of the wood tears it off, ♦︎
   and all the insects of the field devour it.
15  Turn again, O God of hosts, ♦︎
   look down from heaven and behold;
16  Cherish this vine which your right hand has planted, ♦︎
   and the branch that you made so strong for yourself.

²³ How can you say, ‘I am not defiled,
   I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley;
   know what you have done—
a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,
²⁴   a wild ass at home in the wilderness,
in her heat sniffing the wind!
   Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
   in her month they will find her.
²⁵ Keep your feet from going unshod
   and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless,
   for I have loved strangers,
   and after them I will go.’

²⁶ As a thief is shamed when caught,
   so the house of Israel shall be shamed—
they, their kings, their officials,
   their priests, and their prophets,
²⁷ who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’,
   and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
For they have turned their backs to me,
   and not their faces.
But in the time of their trouble they say,
   ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ But where are your gods
   that you made for yourself?
Let them come, if they can save you,
   in your time of trouble;
for you have as many gods
   as you have towns, O Judah.

²⁹ Why do you complain against me?
   You have all rebelled against me,

says the Lord.
³⁰ In vain I have struck down your children;
   they accepted no correction.
Your own sword devoured your prophets
   like a ravening lion.
³¹ And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord!^*
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
   or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
   we will come to you no more’?
³² Can a girl forget her ornaments,
   or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
   days without number.

³³ How well you direct your course
   to seek lovers!
So that even to wicked women
   you have taught your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
   the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
though you did not catch them breaking in.
   Yet in spite of all these things^*
35 you say, ‘I am innocent;
   surely his anger has turned from me.’
Now I am bringing you to judgement
   for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ How lightly you gad about,
   changing your ways!
You shall be put to shame by Egypt
   as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ From there also you will come away
   with your hands on your head;
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
   and you will not prosper through them.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, ¹⁵so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. ¹⁶It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— ¹⁸and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.

3Finally, my brothers and sisters,^* rejoice^* in the Lord.

Breaking with the Past

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!^{* 3}For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God^* and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— ⁴even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: