Warnings to keep the moral law

3   Come, stand forth, you sons of a soothsayer.
You spawn of an adulterer and a harlot, ^note
     4   who is the target of your jests?
  Against whom do you open your mouths
    and wag your tongues,
children of sin that you are, spawn of a lie,
   5   burning with lust under the terebinths,
    under every spreading tree,
  and sacrificing children in the gorges,
    under the rocky clefts?
     6   And you, woman,
  your place is with the creatures of the gorge;
    that is where you belong.
  To them you have dared to pour a libation
    and present an offering of grain. ^note
   7   On a high mountain-top
    you have made your bed;
  there too you have gone up to offer sacrifice.
  In spite of all this am I to relent? ^note
8   Beside door and door-post you have put up your sign.
  Deserting me, you have stripped and lain down ^note
    on the wide bed which you have made,
  and you drove bargains with men
    for the pleasure of sleeping together,
  and you have committed countless acts of fornication ^note
    in the heat of your lust. ^note
   9   You drenched your tresses in oil
    blended with many perfumes;
  you sent out your procurers far and wide
    even down to the gates of Sheol.
   10   Worn out by your unending excesses,
    even so you never said, ‘I am past hope.’
    You earned a livelihood
    and so you had no anxiety.
11   Whom do you fear so much, that you should be false,
that you never remembered me or gave me ^note a thought?
Did I not hold my peace and seem not to see
    while you showed no fear of me?
   12   Now I will denounce your conduct

Warnings to keep the moral law
    that you think so righteous.
13   These idols of yours shall not help when you cry;
    no idol shall save you.
  The wind shall carry them off, one and all,
    a puff of air shall blow them away;
but he who makes me his refuge shall possess the earth
    and inherit my holy hill.


     14   Then a voice shall be heard:
Build up a highway, build it and clear the track,
  sweep away all that blocks my people's path.
15   Thus speaks the high and exalted one,
whose name is holy, who lives for ever:
  I dwell in a high and holy place
    with him who is broken and humble in spirit,
    to revive the spirit of the humble,
    to revive the courage of the broken.
   16   I will not be always accusing,
  I will not continually nurse my wrath.
  For a breath of life passed out from me,
  and by my own act I created living creatures.
   17   For a time I was angry at the guilt of Israel; ^note
  I smote him in my anger and withdrew my favour.
  But he ran wild and went his wilful way.
     18   Then I considered his ways,
  I cured him and gave him relief,
and I brought him comfort in full measure,
   19   brought peace to those who mourned for him,
  by the words that issue from my lips,
peace for all men, both near and far,
  and so I cured him, says the Lord.
   20   But the wicked are like a troubled sea,
    a sea that cannot rest,
whose troubled waters cast up mud and filth.


     21   There is no peace for the wicked,
      says the Lord.

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