Israel’s Corruption

They please the king with their evil,(A)
the princes with their lies.(B)

All of them commit adultery;(C)
they are like an oven heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine(D)
there is a conspiracy with traitors.[a]
For they—their hearts like an oven—
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

All of them are as hot as an oven,(E)
and they consume their rulers.(F)
All their kings fall;
not one of them calls on me.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 7:5 Lit wine—he stretches out his hand to scorners; Hb obscure
  2. 7:3–7 These vv. may refer to a king’s assassination; Hb obscure.

“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
    and the princes laugh at their lies.
They are all adulterers,
    always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
    while the baker is kneading the dough.
On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
    carousing with those who mock them.
Their hearts are like an oven
    blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders[a] through the night,
    and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
Burning like an oven,
    they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
    and no one cries to me for help.

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Footnotes

  1. 7:6 Hebrew Their baker sleeps.