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1 Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem
and see now, and know,
and seek in the wide places of it
if you can find a man,
if there are any who does justly,
who seeks truth,
and I will pardon her.
2 Though they say, “As Yahweh lives,”
surely they swear falsely.
3 O Yahweh, do not your eyes look on truth?
You have stricken them, but they were not grieved.
You have consumed them,
but they have refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock.
They have refused to return.
“Surely these are poor.
They are foolish,
for they do not know the way of Yahweh
nor the law of their God.
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of Yahweh
and the law of their God.”
But these with one accord have broken the yoke
and burst the bonds.
6 Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them,
a wolf of the evenings will destroy them,
a leopard will watch against their cities;
everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many
and their backsliding is increased.
Your children have forsaken me
and sworn by what are no gods.
When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery
and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses roaming at large:
everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for these things?
and should not my soul be avenged
10 Go up on her walls and destroy,
but do not make a full end.
Take away her branches,
for they are not Yahweh’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have dealt very treacherously against me,”
says Yahweh.
and said, “It is not he,
neither will evil come on us;
neither will we see sword nor famine.
13 The prophets will become wind,
and the word is not in them.
Thus will it be done to them.”
14Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Armies, says;
“Because you speak this word,
behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire,
and this people wood,
and it will devour them.
15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away,
O house of Israel,
says Yahweh.
It is a mighty nation.
It is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor do you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is an open tomb,
they are all mighty men.
17 They will eat up your harvest and your bread
that your sons and your daughters should eat.
They will eat up your flocks and your herds.
They will eat up your vines and your fig trees.
They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust
with the sword.
18But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end with you.
19It will happen when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you will say to them, ‘Just like you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’”
20Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying,
foolish people and without understanding,
who have eyes and do not see,
who have ears and do not hear:
says Yahweh
Won’t you tremble at my presence,
who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree,
that it cannot pass it?
And though its waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail;
though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they have revolted and gone.
24 Neither do they say in their heart,
‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God,
who gives rain, both the former and the latter in its season,
who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things
and your sins have withheld good from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men.
They watch, as fowlers lie in wait.
They set a trap.
They catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds,
so are their houses full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.
28 They have grown fat. They shine,
yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness.
They do not plead the cause,
the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper;
and they do not judge the right of the needy.
29 Should I not punish for these things?
30 “An astonishing and horrible thing
has happened in the land.
31 The prophets prophesy falsely
and the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love to have it so.
What will you do in the end of it?”
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