'My People' in the Bible

Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Generation, consider the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

"For my people are foolish, they do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace.' when there is no peace.

"Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes. Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us."

"I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way."

But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

but this thing I commanded them, saying, 'Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'

Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the LORD's law.

They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace;" when there is no peace.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: 'Isn't the LORD in Zion? Isn't her King in her?'" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?"

For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them. For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?

which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, "Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so you shall be my people, and I will be your God;

Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: 'behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.

It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, "As the LORD lives;" even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.

For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,' says the LORD; 'that they might be my people, for a name, for praise, and for glory. But they would not listen.

"You shall say this word to them, 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they did not return from their ways.

For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: "You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings," says the LORD.

"I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,' says the LORD, 'and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I did not send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all,' says the LORD.

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.'

therefore," thus says the LORD, "Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he see the good that I will do to my people, says the LORD, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD."'"

For, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD; 'and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.'"

You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

"At that time," says the LORD, "will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people."

I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness," says the LORD.

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the LORD: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

"Do not consider what this people has spoken, saying, 'The two families which the LORD chose, he has cast them off?' Thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

"My people, go away from the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the LORD.