Jeremiah 5:26-29

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

²⁶ For scoundrels are found among my people;
    they take over the goods of others.
Like fowlers they set a trap;^[a]
    they catch human beings.
²⁷ Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
²⁸     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
    they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?
says the Lord,
    and shall I not bring retribution
    on a nation such as this?