1. The filthy, stained city is as good as dead;the city filled with oppressors is finished!
2. She is disobedient;she refuses correction.She does not trust the Lord;she does not seek the advice of her God.
3. Her princes are as fierce as roaring lions;her rulers are as hungry as wolves in the desert,who completely devour their prey by morning.
4. Her prophets are proud;they are deceitful men.Her priests defile what is holy;they break God’s laws.
5. The just Lord resides within her;he commits no unjust acts.Every morning he reveals his justice.At dawn he appears without fail.Yet the unjust know no shame.
6. “I destroyed nations;their walled cities are in ruins.I turned their streets into ruins;no one passes through them.Their cities are desolate;no one lives there.
7. I thought, ‘Certainly you will respect me!Now you will accept correction!’If she had done so, her home would not be destroyedby all the punishments I have threatened.But they eagerly sinnedin everything they did.
8. Therefore you must wait patiently for me,” says the Lord,“for the day when I attack and take plunder.I have decided to gather nations togetherand assemble kingdoms,so I can pour out my fury on them – all my raging anger.For the whole earth will be consumedby my fiery anger.
9. Know for sure that I will then enablethe nations to give me acceptable praise.All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray,and will worship him in unison.