'My People' in the Bible

Hath a nation, changed gods, although they were No-gods? Yet my people have changed my glory for that which could not profit!

For two wicked things, have my people committed, - Me, have they forsaken a fountain of living water, To hew out for themselves cisterns broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.

O generation see, ye, the word of Yahweh, A desert, became I unto Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Wherefore, have my people said, We have roved about, We will not come in any more unto thee?

Can, a virgin, forget, her ornaments, - A bride, her girdle? Yet, my people, have forgotten me, days without number.

At that time, shall it be said of this people and of Jerusalem, - The sharp wind of the bare heights in the desert, cometh towards the daughter of my people, - not to winnow nor to cleanse.

Surely, perverse, is my people Me, have they not known, Foolish sons, they are, Yea without understanding, they are: Wise, they are to commit wickedness, But how to do well, they know not!

For there have been found among my people lawless men, - One lieth in wait, as with the stooping of fowlers, They have set a trap, they capture men:

The prophets, have prophesied, falsely, And the priests tread down by their means, And, my people, love it, so, - What then can ye do as to her latter end?

And so they have healed the grievous wound of my people, slightly, Saying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace,

O daughter of my people Gird thee with sackcloth and roll thyself in ashes, - The mourning for an only son, make thou for thyself, Most bitter lamentation! For suddenly, shall the destroyer come upon us.

An assayer, have I set thee amongst my people, of gold-ore, - That thou mayest note and try their way:

For go I pray you, unto my place which was in Shiloh, Where I made my Name to dwell, at first, - And see what I did to it, because of the wickedness of my people Israel!

Even the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, And the turtle and the swallow and the crane, observe the season for coming; But my people know not the just sentence of Yahweh.

And so they have healed the grievous wound of the daughter of my people, slightly, - Saying, Peace! peace! when there was no peace!

Lo! the voice of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a land far away, Is, Yahweh, not in Zion? Is, her King, not within her? Why, have they provoked me with their carved images, with their foreign vanities?

For the grievous injury of the daughter of my people, I am grievously injured, - I am enshrouded in gloom, Horror, hath seized me: -

Balsam, is there none, in Gilead? Is there no physician, there? Why hath not appeared the healing of the daughter of my people?

Oh that my head were waters, And mine eyes a fountain 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 wayfarers lodge, That I might leave my people, and go from them, - For they all, are Adulterers, An assemblage of traitors;

Therefore, thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, Behold me! melting them, so will I try them, - For how else should I do because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people?

which I commanded your fathers - in the day when I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt out of the smelting-pot of iron - saying, Hearken unto my voice and do them, According to all that I may command you, - So shall ye become my people, And, I, will become, your God:

Thus, saith Yahweh, Concerning all my wicked neighbours, who have been touching the inheritance which I gave as an inheritance unto my people Israel, - Behold me! uprooting them from off their own soil, Whereas the house of Judah, will I uproot out of their midst.

And it shall come to pass - If they will, diligently learn, the ways of my people - To swear by my Name saying, By the life of Yahweh, As they taught my people to swear by Baal, Then shall they be built in the midst of my people.

Therefore shalt thou say unto them this word, Let mine eyes, run down with tears night and day, And let them not rest, - For with a grievous injury, hath been injured the virgin the daughter of my people, With a wound, severe indeed!

Therefore have I winnowed them with a winnowing shovel in the gates of the land, - I have bereaved - I have destroyed my people, From their own ways, have they not returned.

Yet my people have forgotten me, Unto vanity, have they been burning incense; And it hath caused them to stumble In their ways The roads of age-past times, To walk in by-paths - A way not cast up.

Therefore, Thus, saith Yahweh God of Israel, Concerning the shepherds who are tending my people, - Ye have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and Nave not visited them, - Behold me! visiting upon you the wickedness of your doings Declareth Yahweh.

Even among the prophets of Samaria, had I seen a foolish thing, - They prophesied by Baal, And led astray my people Israel.

But if they had stood in my council, Then might they have announced my words unto my people, And have turned them from their wicked way and from the wickedness of their doings.

Who lay a plot to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they relate every man to his neighbour, - Just as their fathers forgat, my name, for Baal.

Behold me! against such as prophesy the dreams of falsehood, Declareth Yahweh, who have related them and led astray my people, with their falsehoods and with their recklessness, - whereas, I, had not sent them nor commanded them, so that they could be of no, profit, to this people, Declareth Yahweh.

and will give them a heart to know, me, that, I, am Yahweh, So shall they become my people, And, I, will become their God; for they will return unto me with all their heart.

Therefore Thus, saith Yahweh, - Behold me! bringing punishment upon Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and upon his seed, he shall have no man to dwell in the midst of rids people, Nor shall he see the good that I am about to do for my people, Declareth Yahweh; Because revolt, hath he spoken against Yahweh.

For lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, when I will turn the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, Saith Yahweh, - and will bring them back into the land which I gave to their fathers that they might possess it.

So shall ye become my people; And, I, will become your God.

At that time, Declareth Yahweh, I will become a God, to all the families of Israel; And, they, shall become my people.

Then will I satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, And my people with my goodness, shall be satisfied, Declareth Yahweh.

For, this, is the covenant which I will solemnize with the house of Israel after those days Declareth Yahweh, I will put my law within them, Yea, on their heart, will I write it, - So will I become their God, And they shall become my people.

And they shall become my people, - And, I, will become their God;

Hast thou not observed what, this people, have spoken saying, The two families which Yahweh did choose, he hath even east them off? And so, my people, they despise, as though they could not again become a nation in their sight!

Wandering sheep, have my people, been, Their own shepherds led them astray, On the mountains, they seduced them, From mountain to hill, have they gone, They have forgotten their couching-place.

Come ye forth out of her midst O my people, And deliver ye every man his own life, - Because of the glow of the anger of Yahweh.