¹“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem , and see now , and know , and seek in its wide places , if you can find a man , if there is anyone who does justly , who seeks truth, then I will pardon her .

²Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives ,’ surely they swear falsely .”

³O LORD , don’t 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 .

⁴Then I said, “Surely these are poor . They are foolish ; for they don’t know the LORD ’s way , nor the law of their God .

⁵I will go to the great men and will speak to them , for they know the way of the LORD , and the law of their God .” But these with one accord have broken the yoke , and burst the bonds .

⁶Therefore 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 has increased .

⁷“How can I pardon you ? 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 .

⁸They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbour ’s wife.

⁹Shouldn’t I punish them for these things ?” says the LORD . “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?

¹⁰“Go up on her walls , and destroy , but don’t make a full end . Take away her branches , for they are not the LORD ’s.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me ,” says the LORD .

¹²They have denied the LORD , and said, “It is not he . Evil won’t come on us . We won’t see sword or famine .

¹³The prophets will become wind , and the word is not in them . Thus it will be done to them .”

¹⁴Therefore the LORD , 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 .

¹⁵Behold , I will bring a nation on you from far away , house of Israel ,” says the LORD . “It is a mighty nation . It is an ancient nation , a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say .

¹⁶Their quiver is an open tomb . They are all mighty men .

¹⁷They will eat up your harvest and your bread , which 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 .

¹⁸“But even in those days ,” says the LORD , “I will not make a full end of you .

¹⁹It will happen when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us ?’ Then you shall say to them , ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will 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 this now , foolish people without understanding , who have eyes , and don’t see , who have ears, and don’t hear :

²²Don’t you fear me ?’ says the LORD ; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence , who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree , that it can ’t pass it ? Though its waves toss themselves , yet they can ’t prevail . Though they roar , they still can ’t pass over it .’

²³“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart . They have revolted and gone .

²⁴They don’t say in their heart , ‘Let ’s now fear the LORD 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 .

²⁶For wicked men are found amongst my people . They watch , as fowlers lie in wait . They set a trap . They catch men .

²⁷As a cage is full of birds , so are their houses full of deceit . Therefore they have become great , and grew rich .

²⁸They have grown fat . They shine ; yes , they excel in deeds of wickedness . They don’t plead the cause , the cause of the fatherless , that they may prosper ; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

²⁹“Shouldn’t I punish for these things ?” says the LORD . “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?

³⁰“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.

³¹The 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 ?