Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5 yRun to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,

look and take note!

Search her squares to see

zif you can find a man,

one who does justice

and seeks truth,

athat I may pardon her.

2  bThough they say, “As the Lord lives,”

cyet they swear falsely.

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?

10  t“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,

ubut make not a full end;

strip away her branches,

for they are not the Lord’s.

11  vFor the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have been utterly treacherous to me,

declares the Lord.

12  They have spoken falsely of the Lord

and have said, ‘He will do nothing;

wno disaster will come upon us,

xnor shall we see sword or famine.

13  The prophets will become wind;

the word is not in them.

Thus shall it be done to them!’ ”