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Lord, ·don’t you [L do your eyes] look for ·truth [faithfulness] in people?
You struck ·the people of Judah [L them],
    but they didn’t feel any ·pain [anguish].
You ·crushed [consumed] them,
    but they refused to ·learn what is right [L take your correction/instruction].
·They became more stubborn [L Their faces became harder] than a rock;
    they refused to ·turn back to God [L return; repent].
But I thought,
    “These are only the poor, ·foolish people [L they have no sense].
They ·have not learned [L do not know] the ·way [path] of the Lord
    and ·what their God wants them to do [L the ordinances/judgments of their God].
So I will go to the ·leaders [great; or rich]
    and talk to them.
Surely they ·understand [L know] the ·way [path] of the Lord
    and ·know what God wants them to do [L the ordinances/judgments of their God].”
But even ·the leaders [L they] had all joined together to break their yoke [C abandoning God];
    they had snapped off their ropes [C rejecting their dependence on God; 2:20].
So a lion from the forest will ·attack [L strike] them.
    A wolf from the desert will ·kill [destroy] them.
A leopard is ·waiting for [L watching] them near their towns.
    It will ·tear to pieces [make prey of] anyone who comes out of the city,
because the people of Judah have ·sinned [rebelled; transgressed] greatly.
    ·They have wandered away from the Lord many times [Their apostasies are great].

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O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth?
You [have seen their faithless heart and] have stricken them,
But they did not weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction or instruction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to repent and return to You.


Then I said, “[Surely] these are only the poor (uneducated);
They are [sinfully] foolish and have no [spiritual] understanding,
For they do not know the way of the Lord
Or the ordinance of their God [and the requirements of His just and righteous law].

“I will go to the great [men]
And speak to them,
For they [must] know the way of the Lord,
The ordinance of their God.”
But [I found the reverse to be true, that] they too had all alike broken the yoke [of God’s law]
And had burst the bonds [of obedience to Him].

Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them,
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their desertions of faith are countless.

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