3. Lord, I know you look for faithfulness.But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse.Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.They have become as hardheaded as a rock.They refuse to change their ways.
4. I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way.They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands.They do not know what their God requires of them.
5. I will go to the leaders and speak with them.Surely they know what the Lord demands.Surely they know what their God requires of them.”Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authorityand refuse to submit to him.
6. So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them.Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them.Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their citiesand totally destroy anyone who ventures out.For they have rebelled so muchand done so many unfaithful things.
7. The Lord asked, “How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem?Your people have rejected meand have worshiped gods that are not gods at all.Even though I supplied all their needs, they were like an unfaithful wife to me.They went flocking to the houses of prostitutes.
8. They are like lusty, well-fed stallions.Each of them lusts after his neighbor’s wife.
9. I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.“I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!”
10. The Lord commanded the enemy,“March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them.But do not destroy them completely.Strip off their branchesfor these people do not belong to the Lord.
11. For the nations of Israel and Judahhave been very unfaithful to me,”says the Lord.
12. “These people have denied what the Lord says.They have said, ‘That is not so!No harm will come to us.We will not experience war and famine.
13. The prophets will prove to be full of wind.The Lord has not spoken through them.So, let what they say happen to them.’”
14. Because of that, the Lord, the God who rules over all, said to me,“Because these people have spoken like this,I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire.And I will make this people like wood which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.”
15. The Lord says, “Listen, nation of Israel!I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.It will be a nation that was founded long agoand has lasted for a long time.It will be a nation whose language you will not know.Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.
16. All of its soldiers are strong and mighty.Their arrows will send you to your grave.
17. They will eat up your crops and your food.They will kill off your sons and your daughters.They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.They will destroy your vines and your fig trees.Their weapons will batter downthe fortified cities you trust in.
18. Yet even then I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord.