Jeremiah 5:3–9

3  O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?

dYou have struck them down,

but they felt no anguish;

you have consumed them,

but they refused to take correction.

eThey have made their faces harder than rock;

they have refused to repent.

4  Then I said, “These are only the poor;

they have no sense;

ffor they do not know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.

5  I will go to the great

and will speak to them,

for they know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.”

gBut they all alike had broken the yoke;

they had burst the bonds.

6  Therefore ha lion from the forest shall strike them down;

a iwolf from the desert shall devastate them.

jA leopard is watching their cities;

everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,

because their transgressions are many,

their kapostasies are great.

7  l“How can I pardon you?

Your children have forsaken me

mand have sworn by those who are no gods.

nWhen I fed them to the full,

othey committed adultery

pand trooped to the houses of whores.

8  They were well-fed, lusty stallions,

qeach neighing rfor his neighbor’s wife.

9  sShall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord;

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?