Isaiah 9:15-17

New Catholic Bible

¹⁵ For those who were leaders of the people led them astray,
    and those who were led by them were swallowed up.
¹⁶ For this reason
    the Lord did not show pity to their young people
    or have compassion on their orphans and widows,
since all of them were godless evildoers
    and every word they spoke was impious.
Yet after all this, his anger has not abated
    and his hand is still outstretched.
¹⁷ For wickedness continued to burn like a fire,
    consuming briers and thorns,
and setting ablaze the thickets of the forest
    which rose upward in a column of smoke.