New Living Translation

English Standard Version

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.

1Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.

2But even when they are under oath, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are still telling lies!”

2Though they say, “As the LORD lives,” yet they swear falsely.

3LORD, 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.

3O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, 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 repent.

4Then 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.

4Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

5So I will go and speak to their leaders. Surely they know the ways of the LORD and understand God’s laws.” But the leaders, too, as one man, had thrown off God’s yoke and broken his chains.

5I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.

6So 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.

6Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.

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 adultery and lining up at the brothels.

7“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 whores.

8They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

8They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

9Should I not punish them for this?” says the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?

9Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

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.

10“Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s.

11The people of Israel and Judah are full of treachery against me,” says the LORD.

11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly treacherous to me, declares the LORD.

12“They have lied about the LORD and said, ‘He won’t bother us! No disasters will come upon us. There will be no war or famine.

12They have spoken falsely of the LORD and have said, ‘He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.

13God’s prophets are all windbags who don’t really speak for him. Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’”

13The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!’”

14Therefore, this is what the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies says: “Because the people are talking like this, my messages will flame out of your mouth and burn the people like kindling wood.

14Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: “Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

15O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you cannot understand.

15Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares 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.

16Their weapons are deadly; their warriors are mighty.

16Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all mighty warriors.

17They will devour the food of your harvest; they will devour your sons and daughters. They will devour your flocks and herds; they will devour your grapes and figs. And they will destroy your fortified towns, which you think are so safe.

17They 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; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword.”

18“Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,” says the LORD.

18“But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you.

19“And when your people ask, ‘Why did the LORD our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’ A Warning for God’s People

19And 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 foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20“Make this announcement to Israel, and say this to Judah:

20Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah:

21Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.

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

22Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.

22Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the 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.

23But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned away and abandoned me.

23But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

24They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of the LORD our God, for he gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’

24They 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.’

25Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.

25Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you.

26“Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind. They continually set traps to catch people.

26For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

27Like a cage filled with birds, their homes are filled with evil plots. And now they are great and rich.

27Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich;

28They are fat and sleek, and there is no limit to their wicked deeds. They refuse to provide justice to orphans and deny the rights of the poor.

28they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

29Should I not punish them for this?” says the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?

29Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”

30A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land—

30An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

31the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?

31the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.