| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Christian Standard Bible |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Roam through the streets of Jerusalem. Investigate; search in her squares. If you find one person, any who acts justly, who pursues faithfulness, then I will forgive her. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2When they say, "As the LORD lives," they are swearing falsely. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3LORD, don't your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have been foolish. For they don't understand the way of the LORD, the justice of their God. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God. However, these also had broken the yoke and torn off the chains. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from arid plains will ravage them. A leopard stalks their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned me and sworn by those who are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery; they gashed themselves at the prostitute's house. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8They are well-fed, eager stallions, each neighing after someone else's wife. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD's declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them, but do not finish them off. Prune away her shoots, for they do not belong to the LORD. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, have dealt very treacherously with me. This is the LORD's declaration. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12They have contradicted the LORD and insisted, "It won't happen. Harm won't come to us; we won't see sword or famine." |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13The prophets become only wind, for the LORD's word is not in them. This will in fact happen to them. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD of Armies says: Because you have spoken this word, I am going to make my words become fire in your mouth. These people are the wood, and the fire will consume them. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15I am about to bring a nation from far away against you, house of Israel. This is the LORD's declaration. It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16Their quiver is like an open grave; they are all warriors. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17They will consume your harvest and your food. They will consume your sons and your daughters. They will consume your flocks and your herds. They will consume your vines and your fig trees. With the sword they will destroy your fortified cities in which you trust. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18"But even in those days"--this is the LORD's declaration--"I will not finish you off. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19When people ask, 'For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' You will respond to them, 'Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.' |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20"Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying: |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Hear this, you foolish and senseless people. They have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Do you not fear me? This is the LORD's declaration. Do you not tremble before me, the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24They have not said to themselves, 'Let's fear the LORD our God, who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring, who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.' |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you. Your sins have withheld my bounty from you, |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26for wicked men live among my people. They watch like hunters lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men. |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have grown powerful and rich. |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28They have become fat and sleek. They have also excelled in evil matters. They have not taken up cases, such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper, and they have not defended the rights of the needy. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD's declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30An appalling, horrible thing has taken place in the land. |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this. But what will you do at the end of it? |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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