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“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. And behold now, and know, and inquire in its open places, if you can find a man, if there are any who execute judgment, and seek the truth. And I will spare it.

“For though they say, ‘The LORD lives,’ they still swear falsely.”

O LORD, are not Your eyes upon the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not anguished. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a stone and have refused to return.

Therefore I said, “Surely they are poor, they are foolish. For they do not know the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God.

“I will go to the great men, and will speak to them. For they have known the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God.” But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.

Therefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them. And a wolf of the wilderness shall destroy them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces, because their trespasses are many and their rebellions are increased.

“How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me, and sworn by those who are not gods. Though I fed them to the full, they still committed adultery, and assembled themselves by companies in the harlot’s houses.

“They rose up in the morning like fed horses, every man neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

“Shall I not reckon for these things,” says the LORD? Shall not My Soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 “Climb up upon their walls and destroy them. But do not make a full end. Take away their battlements, for they are not the LORD’s.

11 “For the House of Israel, and the House of Judah have grievously trespassed against Me,” says the LORD.

12 They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not Him, nor shall the plague come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.

13 “And the Prophets shall be as wind. And the Word is not in them. Thus shall it come to them.”

14 Therefore, thus says the LORD God of Hosts: “Because you speak such words, behold, I will put My Words into your mouth, like a fire. And this people shall be as wood. And it shall devour them.

15 “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O House of Israel,” says the LORD, “which is a mighty nation, and an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know. Nor do you understand what they say.

16 “Their quiver is as an open sepulcher. They are all very strong.

17 “And they shall eat your harvest and your bread. They shall devour your sons and your daughters. They shall eat up your sheep and your bullocks. They shall eat your vines and your fig trees. They shall destroy your fenced cities with the sword, in which you trusted.

18 “Nevertheless, in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

19 “And when they shall say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do these things to us?’ Then You shall answer them, “Just as you have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

20 “Declare this in the House of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

21 ‘Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which has eyes and does not see, which has ears and does not hear.

22 ‘Do you not fear Me,’ says the LORD? ‘Or will you not be afraid in My presence? Who has placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by the perpetual decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though its waves rage, they still cannot prevail? Though they roar, they cannot pass over it?

23 “But this people has an unfaithful and rebellious heart. They have departed and gone.

24 “For they do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain both early and late in due season, Who reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

25 “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have hindered good things from you.

26 “For among My people are found wicked persons, who lay in wait, as he who sets snares. They have made a pit to catch men.

27 “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit, by which they have become great and grown rich.

28 “They have grown fat and smooth. They surpass the deeds of the wicked. They execute no judgment, no not the judgment of the fatherless. Yet they prosper, though they execute no judgment for the poor.

29 “Shall I not reckon for these things,” says the LORD? “Or shall not My Soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 “A horrible and filthy thing has been committed in the land.

31 “The prophets prophesy lies, and the priests receive gifts in their hands, and My people delight in them. But what will you do when it ends?