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 the poor.They are foolish;for they know not the way of the Lordor the judgment of their God.
5. I will go to the great menand will speak to them,for they have known the way of the Lordand the judgment of their God.”But these have altogether broken the yokeand burst the bonds.
6. Therefore a lion out of the forest will slay them,and a wolf from the deserts will destroy them;a leopard will watch over their cities.Everyone who goes out from there will be torn in pieces,because their transgressions are manyand their backslidings have increased.
7. How shall I pardon you for this?Your children have forsaken Meand sworn by those who are not gods.When I had fed them to the full,then they committed adulteryand 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? says the Lord,and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10. Go 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 Judahhave dealt very treacherously againstMe,says the Lord.
12. They have lied about the Lord,and said, “Not He.Neither shall evil come upon us,nor shall we see sword or famine.”