Lexicon :: Strong's H428 - 'ēllê

“Also on your skirts is found

The lifeblood of the innocent poor;

You did not find them breaking in [a house].

But in spite of all these things [your disobedience, your love of idolatry, your lack of compassion]—

‘Return, faithless Israel,’ says the LORD;

‘I will not [fn]look on you in anger.

For I am gracious and merciful,’ says the LORD;

‘I will not be angry forever.

“Your ways and your deeds

Have brought these things on you.

This is your tragedy and doom; how bitter,

How it has touched your heart!”

“Shall I not punish them [for these things]?” says the LORD;

“Shall I not avenge Myself

On a nation such as this?”

‘Your wickedness has turned these [blessings] away,

And your sins have withheld good [harvests] from you.

‘Shall I not punish them [for these things]?’ says the LORD.

‘Shall I not avenge Myself

On such a nation as this?’

“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall [also] call to them, but they will not answer you.

“Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD.

“Shall I not avenge Myself

On such a nation as this?

The Portion of Jacob [the true God on whom Israel has a claim] is not like these;

For He is the Designer and Maker of all things,

And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance [and He will not fail them]—

The LORD of hosts is His name.

And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Hear the words of this [solemn] covenant and do them.

“And if you [wonder and] say in your heart,

‘Why have these things happened to me?’

It is because of the greatness and nature of your sin

That your skirts have been [fn]pulled away [subjecting you to public disgrace]

And [like a barefoot slave] your heels have been wounded.

Are there any among the idols of the nations who can send rain?

Or can the heavens [of their own will] give showers?

Is it not You, O LORD our God?

Therefore we will wait and hope [confidently] in You,

For You are the one who has made all these things [the heavens and the rain].

“Now when you tell these people all these words and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed all this great tragedy against us? And what is our iniquity, what is the sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’

“Therefore thus says the LORD,

‘Ask now among the nations,

Who has heard of such things?

The virgin Israel

Has done a very vile and horrible thing.

Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was [also] chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

“Therefore prophesy all these words against them and say to them:

‘The LORD will roar from on high

And utter His voice from His holy dwelling;

He will roar mightily against His fold and pasture.

He will jubilantly shout like those who tread the grapes [in the wine press],

Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

The priests and the [false] prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

When the [fn]princes (court officials) of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the LORD.

I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders in exile and to the priests, the prophets and all the people whom [fn]Nebuchadnezzar had taken into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Now these are the words the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah:

‘Why do you cry out over your injury [since it is the natural result of your sin]?

Your pain is incurable (deadly).

Because your guilt is great

And your sins are glaring and innumerable,

I have done these things to you.

“Place for yourself road signs [toward Canaan],

Make for yourself guideposts;

Turn your thought and attention to the highway,

To the way by which you went [into exile].

Retrace your steps, O virgin of Israel,

Return to these your cities.

“If this fixed order departs

From before Me,” says the LORD,

“Then the descendants of Israel also will cease

From being a nation before Me forever.”

Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about this conversation and you will not die.