1Rove through the streets of Jerusalem and look, please, and know, and seek in her plazas whether you find a man, whether there exists one doing justice, seeking faithfulness, and I will forgive her.2And if they say, "As the LORD lives," then they swear to the deception.3O the LORD, are your eyes not on faithfulness? You struck them, yet they did not tremble; you finished them, yet they refused to take discipline; they strengthened their faces from rock; they refused to return.4Then I said, "Surely these are the poor; they have acted foolishly, for they do not know the way of the LORD or the justice of their God."5I will go to the great ones and speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God; yet together they broke the yoke, tore the bonds.6Therefore a lion from the wood struck them; a wolf from the Arabahs will ruin them; a leopard watches upon their cities; everyone going out from them will be torn, because their transgressions have multiplied, their faithlessness has become vast.7Where can I forgive you for this? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by no God; I satisfied them, yet they committed adultery, and the house of one who fornicates they cut themselves.8They were horses well-fed, lusting; each man neighs toward the wife of his neighbor.9Shall I not reckon upon these? declares the LORD. And if upon a nation such as this, shall my soul not avenge itself?10Go up among her vine-rows and destroy, but do not make a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD's.11For by treachery they have acted treacherously against me, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, declares the LORD.12They have denied the LORD and said, "He is not; disaster will not come upon us, and we will not see sword or famine."13The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; thus it shall be done to them.14Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am giving my words in your mouth to fire, and this people wood, and it will eat them.15Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD—a nation that is mighty, a nation from of old, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.16His quiver is like an open grave; they are all mighty men.17And it will eat your harvest and your food; your sons and your daughters it will eat; it will eat your flock and your cattle; it will eat your vine and your fig; it will beat your fortified cities in which you trust, with the sword.18Yet even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you.19And it will be, when you say, "Under what has the LORD our God done all these to us?" you shall say to them, "Just as you forsook me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not to you."20Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying:21Hear this, O people foolish and without heart; they have eyes but do not see; they have ears but do not hear.22Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Will you not tremble before me, who placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting statute that it cannot pass? Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross it.23But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.24And they did not say in their heart, "Let us fear, please, the LORD our God, the one giving rain and autumn rain in its time, and spring rain; he keeps for us the weeks, the statutes of harvest."25Your iniquities have turned these aside, and your sins have withheld the good from you.26For wicked ones are found among my people; they lie in wait like fowlers crouching; they set destruction; they capture men.27Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich.28They have grown fat, they have gleamed; they also passed over evil words; they did not judge the judgment of the orphan, yet they prosper; and the justice of the needy they did not judge.29Shall I not reckon upon these? declares the LORD. If upon a nation such as this, shall my soul not avenge itself?30A horror and a shocking thing has happened in the land.31The prophets prophesied by deception, and the priests rule by their own hands, and my people loved it so; and what will you do at her end?