1. “Run up and down every street in Jerusalem,” says the lord.“Look high and low; search throughout the city!If you can find even one just and honest person,I will not destroy the city.
2. But even when they are under oath,saying, ‘As surely as the lord lives,’they are still telling lies!”
3. lord, you are searching for honesty.You struck your people,but they paid no attention.You crushed them,but they refused to be corrected.They are determined, with faces set like stone;they have refused to repent.
4. Then I said, “But what can we expect from the poor?They are ignorant.They don’t know the ways of the lord.They don’t understand God’s laws.
5. So I will go and speak to their leaders.Surely they know the ways of the lordand understand God’s laws.”But the leaders, too, as one man,had thrown off God’s yokeand broken his chains.
6. So now a lion from the forest will attack them;a wolf from the desert will pounce on them.A leopard will lurk near their towns,tearing apart any who dare to venture out.For their rebellion is great,and their sins are many.
7. “How can I pardon you?For even your children have turned from me.They have sworn by gods that are not gods at all!I fed my people until they were full.But they thanked me by committing adulteryand lining up at the brothels.
8. They are well-fed, lusty stallions,each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9. Should I not punish them for this?” says the lord.“Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?
10. “Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy the grapevines,leaving a scattered few alive.Strip the branches from the vines,for these people do not belong to the lord.
11. The people of Israel and Judahare full of treachery against me,”says the lord.
12. “They have lied about the lordand said, ‘He won’t bother us!No disasters will come upon us.There will be no war or famine.
13. God’s prophets are all windbagswho don’t really speak for him.Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’”