1Roam through the streets of Jerusalem, see now and know, and look in her streets: if you find a man, if there is one doing justice, seeking faithfulness—and I will forgive her.2And even if they say, "As the LORD lives," they swear falsely.3LORD, are not your eyes on faithfulness? You struck them, but they did not sicken; you finished them, but they refused to take discipline. They strengthened their faces from a rock; they refused to return.4And I said, "Only the poor—they have acted foolishly, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God."5I will go to the great ones and I will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God; but they together have broken the yoke, they have torn off the bonds.6Therefore a lion from the forest will strike you down, a wolf of the plains will plunder them, a leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them will be torn, for their transgressions have multiplied, their apostasies have grown strong.7How can I forgive you for this? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by no gods. I fully satisfied them, but they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.8They were lusting horses that rose early—they neighed, a man to his neighbor's wife.9Shall I not visit upon them? declares the LORD. Shall my soul not be avenged on a nation such as this?10Go up through her branches and destroy and finish—do not make fully; remove her plantings, for they are not the LORD's.11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have greatly dealt treacherously against me—oracle of the LORD.12They denied the LORD and said, "Not he! No evil will come upon us, and we will not see sword and famine."13The prophets will be wind, and the word is not in them; in this way he will do to them.14Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD of Hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am giving my words into your mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it will consume them.15Behold, I am bringing upon you a nation from afar, house of Israel—oracle of the LORD. It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose tongue you will not know, nor will you understand what it speaks.16Their quiver is like an open burial site; all of them are mighty warriors.17And it will eat your harvest and your bread; it will eat your sons and your daughters; it will eat your flock and your cattle; it will strip your vine and your fig tree bare; it will cut off with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.18And also in those days, says the LORD: "I will not make a finish of you."19And it will be when you say, “On account of what has the LORD our God done all these things to us?”—then you will say to them: “Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve foreigners in a land not yours.”20Declare this in the house of Jacob and make it heard in Judah, saying:21Hear this, please, you foolish people without heart, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.22Do you not fear me? says the LORD. Will you not tremble before my face, which has set the sand as a boundary to the sea, an eternal statute that they cannot transgress? Though its waves rage, they cannot pass over it; though they roar, they cannot transgress it.23But this people has a rebellious and stubborn heart; they turned aside and went.24And they did not say in their heart, "Let us fear, please, the LORD our God, who gives rain, early rain and latter rain in its time, the sevens of statutes of harvest—he will keep for us."25Your iniquities have turned aside the good, and your sins have withheld the good from you.26For wicked ones have been found among my people; they lie in wait like fowlers. They set snares; they capture men as a destroyer.27As a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. On account of this they grew great and became rich.28They have grown fat, they have made, and they have also passed over words of evil. They did not judge judgment; they succeeded with the judgment of the orphan, and they did not judge the justice of the poor.29Shall I not visit these things?—the utterance of the LORD. Shall my soul not avenge in a nation such as this?30Horror and a detestable abomination have occurred in the land.31The prophets have prophesied by falsehood, and the priests have come down on their hands, and my people have loved it so. And what will you do to its end?