⁷ As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her wickedness;
violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.^(A)

²³ Make a chain!^[a]
For the land is full of bloody crimes;
    the city is full of violence.^(A)

¹¹     Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.
None of them shall remain,
    not their abundance, not their wealth;
    no preeminence among them.^[a](A)

⁸ For whenever I speak, I must cry out;
    I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
    a reproach and derision all day long.^(A)

²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea
    that cannot keep still;
    its waters toss up mire and mud.^(A)

² The faithful have disappeared from the land,
    and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
    and they hunt each other with nets.^(A)
3 Their hands are skilled to do evil;
    the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
    thus they pervert justice.^[a](B)

3 And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—^(A)
2     you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people^[a]
    and the flesh off their bones,^(B)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
    flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
    and chop them up like meat^[b] in a kettle,
    like flesh in a caldron.^(C)