For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, {and} hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. {laden: Heb. of heaviness} {gone...: Heb. alienated, or, separated}

Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. {feignedly: Heb. in falsehood}

For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt {him}. {none...: Heb. together they exalted not}

Now the just shall live by faith: but if {any man} draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Again, When a righteous {man} doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. {righteousness which: Heb. righteousnesses}

For when they speak great swelling {words} of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, {through much} wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. {clean: or, for a little, or, a while, as some read}

As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: {but} peace {shall be} upon Israel.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek {after God}: God {is} not in all his thoughts. {God is...: or, all his thoughts are, There is no God}

Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, {yet} let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

It repenteth me that I have set up Saul {to be} king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard {him};

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, {and} seek God.

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: {there is} none among them that calleth unto me.

The words of his mouth {are} iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, {and} to do good.

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

From that {time} many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if {any man} draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known {it}, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: {taking: or, yielding}

Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; {steps: or, goings}

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, {and} doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked {man} doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways: {him: Heb. after him}

As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: {but} peace {shall be} upon Israel.

The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man {shall be satisfied} from himself.

Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, {even} these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you:

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Then goeth he, and taketh {to him} seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last {state} of that man is worse than the first.

But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and {be} not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, {and} which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Again, When a righteous {man} doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. {righteousness which: Heb. righteousnesses}

Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God. {castest...: Heb. makest void} {prayer: or, speech}

Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.

The words of his mouth {are} iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, {and} to do good.

Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; {there is} none that doeth good, no, not one.

It repenteth me that I have set up Saul {to be} king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.