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1 Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem
and seek in the wide places of it
if there is even one who acts justly,
2 Though they say, “As Yahweh lives,”
surely they swear falsely.
3 O Yahweh, do not your eyes look for faithfulness?
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 rock.
They have refused to repent.
because they do not know the way of Yahweh
for they know the way of Yahweh
But these with one accord have broken the yoke
6 Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them,
a wolf of the evening 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 apostasies are numerous.
Your children have forsaken me
and sworn by those that are not 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 vineyard terraces and destroy,
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have dealt very treacherously against me,”
nor will we see sword nor famine.”
13 The prophets will prove to be only wind,
14Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Armies, says;
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire,
and this people wood,
and it will consume them.
15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away,
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 warriors.
17 They will consume your harvest and your bread;
they will consume your sons and your daughters;
they will consume your flocks and your herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig trees.
They will beat down with the sword
your fortified cities in which you trust.
18But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end of you.
19It will happen when your people 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,
O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes and do not see,
who have ears and do not hear:
Will you not tremble at my presence,
the one who has by a perpetual decree placed the sand for the bound of the sea
And though its waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail;
though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
23 But this people has a rebellious and defiant heart;
they have rebelled and gone away.
24 And they do not say in their heart,
‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God,
who gives the rain, both the former and the latter rain in its season,
who keeps for 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, like fowlers lie in wait.
27 As a cage is full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great and grew rich.
28 They have grown fat, they are sleek.
Also, they excel in deeds of wickedness.
that is, the cause of the fatherless so that they may prosper;
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 Should I not punish them for these things?
30 “An appalling 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.
But what will you do at the end of it all?”
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