No One Is Just

“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem.

Look now and take note; search her squares.

If you can find a single person,

[anyone] who acts justly,

[anyone] who seeks the truth,

then I will forgive [the city].

2 

Although they say,‘As surely as the LORD lives,’

they are swearing falsely

3 

O LORD, do not Your eyes [look] for truth?

You struck them, but they felt no pain.

You finished them off,

but they refused to accept discipline.

They have made their faces harder than stone

and refused to repent.

4 

Then I said, “ They are only the poor;

they have played the fool,

for they do not know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.

5 

I will go to the powerful

and speak to them.

Surely they know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.”

But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke

and torn off the chains.

6 

Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down,

a wolf from the desert will ravage them.

A leopard will lie in wait near their cities,

[and] everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces.

For their rebellious acts are many,

[and] their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

7 

“ Why should I forgive you?

Your children have forsaken Me

and sworn by [gods] that are not gods.

I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery

and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

8 

They are well-fed, lusty stallions,

each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9 

Should I not punish them for these things?”

declares the LORD.

Should I not avenge Myself

on such a nation as this?

10 

Go up through her vineyards and ravage them,

but do not finish them off

Strip off her branches,

for they do not belong to the LORD.

11 

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have been utterly unfaithful to Me,” declares the LORD.

12 

They have lied about the LORD and said:

“He will not do anything; harm will not come to us;

we will not see sword or famine.

13 

The prophets are but wind,

for the word [is] not in them.

So let [their own predictions] befall them.[fn]”

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