3
O LORD,
are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they did not feel it; thou hast consumed them,
but they have refused to receive chastisement; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4
Therefore I said, Surely these
are poor; they have become foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD
nor the judgment of their God.
5
I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD,
and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke
and burst the bonds.
6
Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them,
and a wolf of the desert shall destroy them and a tiger shall lie in wait over their cities; anyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their rebellions have been multiplied,
and their backslidings are increased.
7
How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy sons have forsaken me and sworn by
them that are not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8
They were
as fed horses in the morning; each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9
Shall I not visit for these
things? said the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10
Go ye up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements for they
are not the LORD’s.
11
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made a firm decision to rebel against me, saith the LORD.
12
They have denied the LORD and said, He
is not; and evil shall not come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine;
13
but the prophets shall become like wind, and there is no word in them: thus shall it be done unto them.