Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, {covenant: or, testament}

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected {the same} in hope,

And he shall speak {great} words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Then verily the first {covenant} had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. {ordinances: or, ceremonies}

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations {and} of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them. {set it far...: or, made it unto them an unclean thing}

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed {is} the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat {of} it all the days of thy life;

Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which {if} a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye {are}: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. {the land cannot...: Heb. there can be no expiation for the land}

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. {provocations: Heb. angers}

I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. {tread...: Heb. lay them a treading}

Thus saith the LORD, Where {is} the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors {is it} to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, {saying}, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant {that} shall not be forgotten.

Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end {shall be}: for they {are} a very froward generation, children in whom {is} no faith.

For {so} it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

Arise ye, and depart; for this {is} not {your} rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy {you}, even with a sore destruction.

Son of man, say unto her, Thou {art} the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. {overwhelmed: Heb. covered}

For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions {are} with us; and {as for} our iniquities, we know them;

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, {and} to Israel {for} an everlasting covenant:

Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great {is} the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. {They say: Heb. Saying}

And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching {for} doctrines the commandments of men.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, {and} to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered {with fatness}; then he forsook God {which} made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

Although my house {be} not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all {things}, and sure: for {this is} all my salvation, and all {my} desire, although he make {it} not to grow.

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over {our} head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. {trespass: or, guiltiness}

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed {is} the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat {of} it all the days of thy life;

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. {reject: or, frustrate}

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected {the same} in hope,

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. {from them: Heb. from after them}

And shed innocent blood, {even} the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, {but} that ye break my covenant:

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, {or} the likeness of any {thing}, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. {men: or, Adam}

Let favour be shewed to the wicked, {yet} will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, {which were} all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. {valiant...: Heb. sons of valour}

And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put {it} even among their own stuff.

In that ye have brought {into my sanctuary} strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, {even} my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. {strangers: Heb. children of a stranger}

By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. {blood: Heb. bloods}

And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

{Set} the trumpet to thy mouth. {He shall come} as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. {thy: Heb. the roof of thy}

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day {that} I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: {although...: or, should I have continued an husband unto them?}

And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.

They have deeply corrupted {themselves}, as in the days of Gibeah: {therefore} he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. {They say: Heb. Saying}