1 "Go up and down through the streets of Jerusalem, and look and take note; search her open squares to see if you can find a man, if there is one who acts justly and seeks truth, so that I may pardon her.
2 Even when they say, 'As the LORD lives,' they are in fact swearing to a lie."
3 O LORD, are your eyes not on truth? You struck them, but they did not grieve; you wiped them out, but they would not accept correction. They have set their faces harder than stone; they would not turn back.
4 And I said, "These are just the poor; they act foolishly, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God.
5 Let me go to the great ones and speak with them, for surely they know the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God." But they too, all together, had broken the yoke and snapped the bonds.
6 That is why a lion from the forest strikes them, a wolf of the desert plains ravages them, a leopard keeps watch over their cities; whoever goes out from them is torn to pieces, for their rebellions are many, their turnings away are numerous.
7 "Why should I forgive you for this? Your sons have abandoned me and sworn by what are not gods. I fed them full, and they committed adultery and crowded into the harlot's house.
8 They are well-fed horses, roaming in heat; each neighs for his neighbor's wife.
9 Shall I not punish for these things?" declares the LORD. "On a nation such as this shall my soul not take vengeance?
10 Go up into her terraces and ruin them, but make no complete end; take away her tendrils, for they are not the LORD's.
11 For they have been utterly faithless to me, the house of Israel and the house of Judah," declares the LORD.
12 They have lied about the LORD and said, "Not he! No evil will come on us; sword and famine we will not see.
13 The prophets will be wind; the word is not in them. So may it be done to them!"
14 So thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, look, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people the wood, and it will consume them.
15 Look, I am bringing upon you a nation from far away, O house of Israel," declares the LORD. "It is a lasting nation, a nation from of old, a nation whose tongue you do not know, and you will not understand what it says.
16 Its quiver is like an open grave; all of them are warriors.
17 It will devour your harvest and your food; it will devour your sons and your daughters; it will devour your sheep and your cattle; it will devour your vine and your fig tree; your fortified cities in which you trust it will smash with the sword.
18 "Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I will not make a complete end of you.
19 And when you say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land not your own.'"
20 Announce this in the house of Jacob, and make it heard in Judah:
21 "Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear.
22 Do you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Will you not tremble before me, who placed the sand as the limit of the sea, a perpetual statute that it cannot pass? Its waves toss, but they cannot prevail; they roar, but they cannot cross it.
23 But this people has a heart that is stubborn and defiant; they have turned away and gone.
24 They do not say in their heart, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, the autumn rain and the spring rain, in its time, who guards for us the weeks appointed for harvest.'
25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept the good from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying low; they set a trap; it is men they catch.
27 As a basket is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; that is how they have become great and rich.
28 They have grown fat, they are sleek; they also overflow with deeds of evil. They do not plead the case, the case of the orphan, so that they may prosper, nor do they defend the right of the needy.
29 Shall I not punish for these things?" declares the LORD. "On a nation such as this shall my soul not take vengeance?
30 A horrifying and appalling thing has come about in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule at their direction, and my people love to have it so. But what will you do at the end of it?"