Isaiah 43:22

³My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Armies?

¹³You say also, ‘Behold, what ^[+] a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says the LORD of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says the LORD.

²You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. ³You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

⁶⁶At this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. ⁶⁷Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him? ¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

¹⁰The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to the LORD their God, nor sought him, for all this. ¹¹“Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria. ¹²When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard. ¹³Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me. ¹⁴They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

¹Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. ²Take words with you, and return to the LORD. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good; so we offer bulls as we vowed of our lips.

^14[+] They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’