Zephaniah 3:1-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Wickedness of Jerusalem
3 Woe, soiled, defiled,
oppressing city!(A)
2 It has listened to no voice;
it has accepted no correction.
It has not trusted in the Lord;
it has not drawn near to its God.(B)
3 The officials within it
are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing until the morning.(C)
4 Its prophets are reckless,
faithless persons;
its priests have profaned what is sacred;
they have done violence to the law.(D)
5 The Lord within it is righteous;
he does no wrong.
Every morning he renders his judgment,
each dawn without fail,
but the unjust knows no shame.(E)
6 I have cut off nations;
their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
without people, without inhabitants.(F)
7 I said, “Surely the city[a] will fear me;
it will accept correction;
it will not lose sight[b]
of all that I have brought upon it.”
But they were the more eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.(G)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.