5 ¶ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and find out and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that execute judgment, that seek the truth; and I will pardon the city.
2 And if they should say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they did not feel it; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive chastisement; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they have become foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.
6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the desert shall destroy them and a tiger shall lie in wait over their cities; anyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their rebellions have been multiplied, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy sons have forsaken me and sworn by them that are not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning; each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 ¶ Go ye up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements for they are not the LORD’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made a firm decision to rebel against me, saith the LORD.
12 They have denied the LORD and said, He is not; and evil shall not come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine;
13 but the prophets shall become like wind, and there is no word in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Therefore thus hath the LORD God of the hosts said: Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the LORD; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou dost not know, neither dost thou understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher; they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; and thy fenced cities, in which thou dost trust, they shall bring to nothing with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why does the LORD our God do all these things unto us? Then thou shalt answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20 ¶ Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah, saying,
21 Hear now this, O foolish people and without heart, who have eyes and do not see; who have ears, and do not hear:
22 Do ye not fear me? saith the LORD; will ye not tremble at my presence, who placed the sand for the bound of the sea by an eternal order, which cannot be broken? Storms shall raise themselves up, yet they shall not prevail; their waves shall roar, yet they shall not pass over it.
23 But this people have a false and rebellious heart; they turned and went.
24 Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; he shall keep us with the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 ¶ Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26 For among my people were found wicked men: they lay in wait as he that sets snares; they set a trap of perdition to catch men.
27 As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; thus they became great and rich.
28 They are become fat; they shine; yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they did not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless; with all this they made themselves prosperous; and they did not judge the cause of the poor.
29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A horrible and ugly thing is committed in the land:
31 The prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their hands; and my people love to have it so. What will ye do in the end thereof?