25. Your crimes have prevented these things,your sins have turned these blessings away from you.
26. For criminals lurk among my people;like fowlers they set traps,but it is human beings they catch.
27. Their houses are as full of treacheryas a bird-cage is of birds;Therefore they grow powerful and rich,
28. fat and sleek.They pass over wicked deeds;justice they do not defendBy advancing the claim of the orphanor judging the cause of the poor.
29. Shall I not punish these things?—oracle of the Lord;on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
30. Something shocking and horriblehas happened in the land:
31. The prophets prophesy falsely,and the priests teach on their own authority;Yet my people like it this way;what will you do when the end comes?