[1] Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get
knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there
is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my
forgiveness. [2] And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths
are false. [3] O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them
punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them,
but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces
harder than a rock; they would not come back. [4] Then I said, But these
are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of
the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God. [5] I will go to the
great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of
the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their
one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands. [6] And so a lion from the
woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them
waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out
from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their
sins and the increase of their wrongdoing. [7] How is it possible for you
to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking
their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full
measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the
houses of loose women. [8] They were full of desire, like horses after a
meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife. [9] Am I not to
give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take
payment from such a nation as this? [10] Go up against her vines and make
waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they
are not the Lord's. [11] For the people of Israel and the people of Judah
have been very false to me, says the Lord. [12] They would have nothing to
do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us;
we will not see the sword or be short of food: [13] And the prophets will
become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them. [14]
For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said: Because you have
said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood,
and they will be burned up by it. [15] See, I will send you a nation from
far away, O people of Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old
nation, a nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not get
the sense of their words. [16] Their arrows give certain death, they are
all men of war. [17] They will take all the produce of your fields, which
would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they will take your
flocks and your herds: they will take all your vines and your fig-trees:
and with the sword they will make waste your walled towns in which you put
your faith. [18] But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your
destruction be complete. [19] And it will come about, when you say, Why has
the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them, As
you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange gods in your land, so
will you be servants to strange men in a land which is not yours. [20] Say
this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying, [21] Give ear now to
this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and
ears without the power of hearing: [22] Have you no fear of me? says the
Lord; will you not be shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as
a limit for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it?
and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way; though the
sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go past it. [23] But the
heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are
broken loose and gone. [24] And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us
give worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the spring
rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered weeks of the
grain-cutting. [25] Through your evil-doing these things have been turned
away, and your sins have kept back good from you. [26] For there are
sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they
put a net and take men in it. [27] As the fowl-house is full of birds, so
are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and
have got wealth. [28] They have become fat and strong: they have gone far
in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a
father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets
his rights. [29] Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the
Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this? [30] A
thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land; [31] The prophets give
false words and the priests give decisions by their direction; and my
people are glad to have it so: and what will you do in the end?
