3. Adonai, do Your eyes not look for faithfulness? You struck them, but they did not grieve. You disciplined them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone. They refused to return.
4. Then I said: These are only the poor. They are foolish. For they do not know the way of Adonai, the ordinance of their God.
5. I will go to the distinguished and speak to them. Surely they know the way of Adonai, the ordinance of their God. But they too had broken the yoke and torn off the bonds.
6. Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them. A desert wolf will ravage them. A leopard watches over their cities. Everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces, For their rebellion is great, their backslidings frequent.
7. “Why therefore should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. Even though I fed them well, they committed adultery and thronged to the prostitute houses.
8. They are well-fed, lustful stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9. For such, should I not punish them?” It is a declaration of Adonai. “On such a nation as this should I not avenge Myself?