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CHAPTER 5
1 Compass ye the ways of Jerusalem, and look, and behold ye, and seek ye in the streets thereof, whether ye find a man doing doom, and seeking faith; and I shall be merciful to them.
2 That if also they say, The Lord liveth, yea, they shall swear this falsely.
3 Lord, thine eyes behold faith; thou hast smitten them, and they made not sorrow; thou hast all-broken them, and they forsook to take chastising; they made their faces harder than a stone, and would not turn again.
4 Forsooth I said, In hap they be poor men, and fools, that know not the way of the Lord, and the doom of their God.
5 Therefore I shall go to the principal men, and I shall speak to them; for they knew the way of the Lord, and the doom of their God. And lo! they have more broken together the yoke, and have broken [the] bonds.
6 Therefore a lion of the wood smote them; a wolf at eventide wasted them, a leopard waking or watching on the cities of them. Each man that goeth out of them, shall be taken; for the trespassings of them be multiplied, the turnings away of them be comforted.
7 On what thing may I be merciful to thee? Thy sons have forsaken me, and swear by them that be not gods. I [full-]filled them, and they did adultery, and in the house of an whore they did lechery.
8 They be made horses, and stallions, lovers to women; each man neighed to the wife of his neighbour.
9 Whether I shall not visit on these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul take vengeance on such a folk?
10 Go ye up on the walls thereof, and destroy ye; but do not ye make an ending. Do ye away the scions thereof, for they be not servants of the Lord.
11 For why the house of Israel and the house of Judah hath trespassed by trespassing against me, saith the Lord;
12 they denied the Lord, and said, He is not, neither evil shall come [up] on us; we shall not see sword and hunger.
13 The prophets spake against the wind, and none answer was in them; therefore these things shall come to them.
14 The Lord God of hosts saith these things, For ye spake this word, lo! I give my words in thy mouth into fire, and this people into trees, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo! thou house of Israel, saith the Lord, I shall bring on you a folk from [a] far; a strong folk, an eld [or old] folk, a folk whose language thou shalt not know, neither shalt understand what it speaketh.
16 The arrow case thereof is as an open sepulchre; all be strong men.
17 And it shall eat thy corns, and it shall devour thy bread, thy sons and thy daughters; it shall eat thy flock, and thy droves, it shall eat also thy vinery [or vines], and thy fig tree; it shall all-break thy strong cities with sword, in which thou hast trusted.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I shall not make you into [full] ending.
19 That if ye say, Why hath our Lord God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them, As ye forsook me, and served an alien god in your land, so ye shall serve alien gods in a land not yours.
20 Tell ye this to the house of Jacob, and make ye heard in Judah, and say ye,
21 Hear, thou fond [or foolish] people, that hast none heart; which have eyes, and see not, and ears, and hear not.
22 Therefore shall not ye dread me, saith the Lord, and shall not ye make sorrow for my face? Which have set gravel to be a term, either end, to the sea, an everlasting commandment, which it shall not pass; and the waves thereof shall be moved, and shall not have power; and shall wax great, and shall not pass it.
23 Forsooth an heart unbelieveful and stirring to wrath is made to this people; they departed, and went away,
24 and they said not in their heart, Dread we our Lord God, that giveth to us rain timeful, and lateful in his time; that keepeth to us the plenty of harvest of the year.
25 Your wickednesses did away these things, and your sins forbidded good from you.
26 For there be found wicked men in my people, setting treason, as fowlers setting snares and traps, to take men.
27 As a net, either a trap, full of birds, so the houses of them be full of guile.
28 Therefore they be magnified, and made rich, made fat within, and made fat withoutforth, and they passed worst my words; they deemed not the cause of a widow, they dressed not the cause of a fatherless child, and they deemed not the doom of poor men.
29 Whether I shall not visit on these things, saith the Lord, either shall not my soul take vengeance on such a folk?
30 Wonder and marvelous things be made in the land;
31 prophets prophesied leasing, and priests joyed with their hands, and my people loved such things. What therefore shall be done in the last thing thereof?

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© 2001,2010,2011,2012,2013,2015 Terry Noble