1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and find out and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that execute judgment, that seek the truth; and I will pardon the city.
2. And if they should say, The Lord lives; surely they swear falsely.
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.
14. Therefore thus hath the Lord God of the hosts said: Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.