4 `Hear a word of Jehovah, sons of Israel, For a strife [is] to Jehovah with inhabitants of the land, For there is no truth, nor kindness, Nor knowledge of God, in the land,

² Swearing, and lying, and murdering, And stealing, and committing adultery -- have increased, And blood against blood hath touched.

³ Therefore mourn doth the land, And weak is every dweller in it, With the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the fishes of the sea -- they are removed.

⁴ Only, let no one strive, nor reprove a man, And thy people [are] as those striving with a priest.

⁵ And thou hast stumbled in the day, And stumbled hath also a prophet with thee in the night, And I have cut off thy mother.

⁶ Cut off have been My people for lack of knowledge, Because thou knowledge hast rejected, I reject thee from being priest to Me, And thou forgettest the law of thy God, I forget thy sons, I also!

⁷ According to their abundance so they sinned against Me, Their honour into shame I change.

⁸ The sin of My people they do eat, And unto their iniquity lift up their soul.

⁹ And it hath been, like people, like priest, And I have charged on it its ways, And its habitual doings I return to it.

¹⁰ And they have eaten, and are not satisfied, They have gone a-whoring, and increase not, For they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.