Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note! Search its squares and see if you can find one person who acts justly and seeks truth— so that I may pardon Jerusalem.

Although they say, “As the Lord lives,” yet they swear falsely.

O Lord , do your eyes not look for truth? You have struck them, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to turn back.

Then I said, “These are only the poor, they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord , the law of their God.

Let me go to the rich and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord , the law of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them, a wolf from the desert shall destroy them. A leopard is watching against their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces— because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.

How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.

They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord ; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but do not make a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the Lord 's.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly faithless to me, says the Lord.

They have spoken falsely of the Lord , and have said, “He will do nothing. No evil will come upon us, and we shall not see sword or famine.”

The prophets are nothing but wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!

Therefore thus says the Lord , the God of hosts: Because they have spoken this word, I am now making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.

I am going to bring upon you a nation from far away, O house of Israel, says the Lord. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.

Their quiver is like an open tomb; all of them are mighty warriors.

They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.

But even in those days, says the Lord , I will not make a full end of you.

And when your people say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”

Declare this in the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:

Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but do not see, who have ears, but do not hear.

Do you not fear me? says the Lord ; Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

They do not say in their hearts, “Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.”

Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have deprived you of good.

For scoundrels are found among my people; they take over the goods of others. Like fowlers they set a trap; they catch human beings.

Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich,

they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord , and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule as the prophets direct; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

The Linen Loincloth

Thus said the Lord to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.”

So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord , and put it on my loins.

And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying,

“Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”

So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

And after many days the Lord said to me, “Go now to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.”

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.

Then the word of the Lord came to me:

Thus says the Lord : Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

For as the loincloth clings to one's loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord , in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.
Symbol of the Wine-Jars

You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel: Every wine-jar should be filled with wine. And they will say to you, “Do you think we do not know that every wine-jar should be filled with wine?”

Then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord : I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness.

And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them.
Exile Threatened

Hear and give ear; do not be haughty, for the Lord has spoken.

Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, and before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight; while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord 's flock has been taken captive.

Say to the king and the queen mother; “Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.”

The towns of the Negeb are shut up with no one to open them; all Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile.

Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you have trained to be your allies? Will not pangs take hold of you, like those of a woman in labor?

And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up, and you are violated.

Can Ethiopians change their skin or leopards their spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.

This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, says the Lord , because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.

I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.

I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions on the hills of the countryside. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?