Jeremiah 16:12

“It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

“Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.

‘This evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have walked after other gods to serve them and to worship them, let them be just like this belt which is totally worthless.

“But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

Our fathers sinned; they are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities.

“Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Will you defile yourselves in the way of your fathers and play the harlot after their detestable things?

Thus says Yahweh, “For three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn back its punishment Because they rejected the law of Yahweh And have not kept His statutes; Their falsehood also has led them astray, That which their fathers walked after.

“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’