Zephaniah 3:1-7

The Voice

3 Disaster is coming to the city of rebels,
    to Jerusalem, the now defiled city of oppression.
² That city refused to listen to anyone.
    She would not take advice.
She didn’t believe in the Eternal One anymore.
    She didn’t want a close relationship with her God.
³ Her rulers remind me of roaring lions,
    out for the kill instead of protecting her people.
Her judges are a pack of wolves on the prowl at night,
Consuming what they are after
    until not one bone is left to chew on the next morning.
⁴ Her prophets, whom the people should look to for the truth,
    are irresponsible and double-crossing, deceitful men.
Her priests make vile holy places and do violence to God’s teaching.

⁵ Despite all this, the Eternal One is right there in her midst;
    nothing He does is wrong.
Every morning He delivers His judgment;
    He illuminates the right way to live.
Though, like the sun, He never fails to appear,
    it’s amazing that the lawbreakers aren’t ashamed of their actions.

⁶ Eternal One: I have totally destroyed the other nations.
        I crumbled their high towers to the ground.
    I emptied their streets, leaving no one to travel them.
        There is not one person, not one animal, no one in their decimated cities.
⁷     I said to Myself, “Surely My people will honor Me.
        Surely they will listen to Me
    So they can save themselves and their city
        from all I warned them about and appointed for their benefit.”
    But no, they were even more eager to keep doing all the wrong things.