2. And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
3. O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.
5. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the law 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, a leopard shall watch over their cities: everyone that goes out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7. How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no 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: everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.
9. Shall I not punish for these things?
10. Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not the LORD'S.
11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,
12. They have lied about the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13. And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14. Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts,
15. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel,
16. Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.
17. And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fortified cities, in which you trusted, with the sword.
18. Nevertheless in those days,
19. And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall you answer them, Like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21. Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not: