¹⁶ But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help.

¹² They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not see the sword or be short of food:

¹³ And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them.

¹ A man hating sharp words and making his heart hard, will suddenly be broken and will not be made well again.

¹⁰ So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of.

¹² But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this house and took the people away into Babylon.

¹ <Maschil. Of Asaph.> Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care?

²⁴ Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand;

²⁵ You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words:

²⁶ So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;

²⁷ When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you.

²⁸ Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me:

²⁹ For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord:

³⁰ They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them.

³¹ So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full.

¹⁵ For this cause his downfall will be sudden; quickly he will be broken, and there will be no help for him.

³ For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had had him shut up, saying, Why have you, as a prophet, been saying, The Lord has said, See, I will give this town into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take it;

⁶³ And the men in whose hands Jesus was, made sport of him and gave him blows.

⁶⁴ And, covering his eyes, they said to him, Are you prophet enough to say who gave you that blow?

³⁶ And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons:

⁸ Whoever, then, goes against this word, goes against not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

³² Now on hearing about the coming back from death, some of them made sport of it, but others said, Let us go more fully into this another time.

⁴¹ See, you doubters, have wonder and come to your end; for I will do a thing in your days to which you will not give belief, even if it is made clear to you.

⁵² Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;

¹ <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> O God, the nations have come into your heritage; they have made your holy Temple unclean; they have made Jerusalem a mass of broken walls.

² They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

³ Their blood has been flowing like water round about Jerusalem; there was no one to put them in their last resting-place.

⁴ We are looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and made sport of by those who are round us.

⁵ How long, O Lord? will you be angry for ever? will your wrath go on burning like fire?

²² And now, take care that you do not make sport of him, or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end, which is to come on all the land.

⁷ O Lord, you have been false to me, and I was tricked; you are stronger than I, and have overcome me: I have become a thing to be laughed at all the day, everyone makes sport of me.

⁶ So they took Jeremiah and put him into the water-hole of Malchiah, the king's son, in the place of the armed watchmen: and they let Jeremiah down with cords. And in the hole there was no water, but wet earth: and Jeremiah went down into the wet earth.

¹² Be glad and full of joy; for great is your reward in heaven: for so were the prophets attacked who were before you.

³³ Give ear to another story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country.

³⁴ And when the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit.

³⁵ And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another.

³⁶ Again, he sent other servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them.

³⁷ But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for my son.

³⁸ But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death and take his heritage.

³⁹ And they took him and, driving him out of the vine-garden, put him to death.

⁴⁰ When, then, the lord of the vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen?

⁴¹ They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready.

¹⁴ And the Pharisees, who had a great love of money, hearing these things, were making sport of him.

³² For he will be given up to the Gentiles, and will be made sport of and put to shame:

¹¹ And Herod, with the men of his army, put shame on him and made sport of him, and dressing him in shining robes, he sent him back to Pilate.

³⁶ And the men of the army made sport of him, coming to him and giving him bitter wine,

¹³ But others, making sport of them, said, They are full of new wine.

¹⁶ Like men of deceit they put me to shame; the voice of their wrath was loud against me.