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.
15. Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou dost not know, neither dost thou understand what they say.
16. Their quiver is as an open sepulcher; they are all mighty men.
17. And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; and thy fenced cities, in which thou dost trust, they shall bring to nothing with the sword.
18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you.
19. And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why does the Lord our God do all these things unto us? Then thou shalt answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.