1. Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any who executes justice, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.
2. And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
3. O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have struck them, but they have 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.
4. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5. I will go to the great men, and will speak to 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 evenings shall plunder them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7. How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by those who are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and crowded into the harlots' houses.
8. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
9. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10. Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her fortifications; for they are not the LORD'S.
11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says the LORD.
12. They have denied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13. And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
14. Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.
16. Their quiver is like an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.
17. And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fortified cities, in which you trusted, with the sword.
18. Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end of you.
19. And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us? then shall you answer them, Just as you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and announce it in Judah, saying,
21. Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22. Do you not fear me? says the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23. But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have rebelled and gone.
24. Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserves for us 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 are found wicked men: they lie in wait, as he that sets snares; 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 grown rich.
28. They have become fat, they glisten: yea, they exceed the deeds of the wicked: they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30. An astonishing and horrible thing is committed in the land;
31. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do at the end of it?
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