A Dialogue About Jerusalem's Sin
51Hurry here and there through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note.
Search her public squares.
See if you can find just one person who deals justly
and who seeks to be faithful.
If you can, I will forgive her.
2Though they say, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
they are still swearing falsely.
The Prophet Responds
3
Lord, don't your eyes look for faithfulness?
You struck them,
but they felt no pain.
You crushed them,
but they refused discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock
and refused to repent.
4Then I said:
These are only the poor.
They are foolish,
because they do not know the way of the Lord
and the just verdict of their God.
5I will go to the great men and speak to them.
Certainly they know the way of the Lord,
the just verdict of their God.
But all of them together have broken the yoke
and have torn off their chains.
6That is why a lion from the forest will strike them.
A wolf from the desert will attack them,
and a leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who comes out of them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellions are so many,
and their unfaithfulness is so great.
The Lord Responds to Jerusalem
7Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me
and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I satisfied their needs,
yet they committed adultery
and crowded into prostitutes' houses.
8They are well-fed, lusty[] stallions, each one neighing for his neighbor's wife.
9Should I not punish them for this? declares the Lord.
Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this one?
10Go through her vineyards and destroy them,
but do not destroy them completely.
Cut away the branches,
because they do not belong to the Lord.
11The house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been completely unfaithful to me, declares the Lord.
12They have lied about the Lord.
They say, “He is nothing.
No disaster will come upon us.
We will not see sword or famine.
13The prophets are only wind.
The word is not in them,
so let what they say come upon them.”[] 14Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, says.
Because they have said this,
I will make my words in your mouth a fire.
These people are the wood, and it will burn them up.
15Now, O house of Israel, I am bringing against you
a nation from far away, declares the Lord.
I am bringing an enduring nation, an ancient nation.
They are a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16Their quiver is like an open grave.
They are all strong warriors.
17They will consume your harvest and your bread.
They will consume your sons and daughters.
They will consume your flocks and herds,
and they will consume your vines and fig trees.
With their swords they will beat down your fortified cities,
the places in which you trust.
18Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not destroy you completely. 19When the people ask, “Why has the Lord our God done this to us?” answer them, “Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.”
