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1Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,[#Gen 18.23, 26, 32; 2 Chr 16.9; Ezek 22.30]
look around and take note!
Search its squares and see
if you can find one person
who acts justly
and seeks truth—
so that I may pardon Jerusalem.
2Although they say, “As the Lord lives,”[#Jer 4.2; 7.9; Titus 1.16]
yet they swear falsely.
3O Lord , do your eyes not look for truth?[#Isa 1.5; 9.13; Jer 2.30; 7.26; 19.15; Zeph 3.2]
You have struck them,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to turn back.
4Then I said, “These are only the poor;[#Jer 4.22; 8.7]
they have no sense,
for they do not know the way of the Lord ,
the law of their God.
5Let me go to the rich[#Ps 2.3; Mic 3.1; #5.5 Or the great]
and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord ,
the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.
6Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them;[#Jer 30.14, 15; Hos 13.7; Hab 1.8; Zeph 3.3]
a wolf from the desert shall destroy them.
A leopard is watching against their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many;
their faithlessness is great.
7How can I pardon you?[#Num 25.1–3; Deut 32.21; Josh 23.7; Jer 7.9; Zeph 1.5; Gal 4.8]
Your children have forsaken me
and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.
8They were well-fed lusty stallions,[#Jer 13.27; Ezek 22.11]
each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord ,[#Jer 9.9; 44.22]
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?
10Go up through her vine rows and destroy,[#v 18 ; Jer 4.27; 39.8]
but do not make a full end;
strip away her branches,
for they are not the Lord ’s.
11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah[#Jer 3.20]
have been utterly faithless to me, says the Lord .
12They have spoken falsely of the Lord[#2 Chr 36.16; Isa 28.15; Jer 14.13; 23.17]
and have said, “He will do nothing.
No evil will come upon us,
and we shall not see sword or famine.”
13The prophets are nothing but wind,[#Jer 14.13, 15]
for the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!
14Therefore thus says the Lord , the God of hosts:[#Jer 1.9; 23.29]
Because you have spoken this word,
I am now making my words in your mouth a fire
and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.
15I am going to bring upon you[#Deut 28.49; Isa 5.26; 29.3; Jer 1.15; 4.16; 6.22]
a nation from far away, O house of Israel, says the Lord .
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16Their quiver is like an open tomb;[#Isa 5.28; 13.18]
all of them are mighty warriors.
17They shall eat up your harvest and your food;[#Lev 26.16; Deut 28.31, 33; Jer 8.13; Hos 8.14]
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
they shall destroy with the sword
your fortified cities in which you trust.
18But even in those days, says the Lord , I will not make a full end of you.[#Jer 4.27]
19And when your people say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”[#Deut 28.48; 29.24–26; 1 Kings 9.8, 9; Jer 16.10–13]
20Declare this in the house of Jacob;
proclaim it in Judah:
21Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,[#v 4 ; Isa 6.9, 10; Ezek 12.2; Mt 13.14]
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.
22Do you not fear me? says the Lord ;[#Job 26.10; Ps 104.9; Jer 2.19]
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;[#Jer 4.17; 6.28]
they have turned aside and gone away.
24They do not say in their hearts,[#Gen 8.22; Ps 147.8; Joel 2.23; Mt 5.45]
“Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.”
25Your iniquities have turned these away,[#Jer 2.17; 4.18]
and your sins have deprived you of good.
26For the wicked are found among my people.[#Ps 10.9; Prov 1.11; Hab 1.15]
They lie in wait like hunters;
destroyers, they catch humans.
27Like a cage full of birds,[#Jer 9.6; 12.1]
their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28they have grown fat and sleek.[#Deut 32.15; Isa 1.23; Jer 2.34; Zech 7.10]
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord ,[#Mal 3.5]
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?
30An appalling and horrible thing[#Hos 6.10]
has happened in the land:
31the prophets prophesy falsely,[#Jer 14.14; Ezek 13.6; Mic 2.11]
and the priests rule as the prophets direct;
my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?