Exhortations to Israel and Judah
  like a well-fed and lusty stallion.
   9   Shall I not punish them for this?
    the Lord asks.
  Shall I not take vengeance
    on such a people?
   10   Go along her rows of vines and slash them,
    yet do not make an end of them.
  Hack away her green branches,
    for they are not the Lord's.
   11   Faithless are Israel and Judah,
  both faithless to me.
    This is the very word of the Lord.
   12   They have denied the Lord,
  saying, ‘He does not exist.
  No evil shall come upon us;
  we shall never see sword or famine.
   13   The prophets will prove mere wind,
    the word not in them.’ ^note

14   And so, because you talk in this way, these are the words of the Lord the God of Hosts to me:

  I will make my words a fire in your mouth;
  and it shall burn up this people like brushwood.
   15   I bring against you, Israel, a nation from afar,
  an ancient people established long ago,
    says the Lord.
  A people whose language you do not know,
    whose speech you will not understand;
   16   they are all mighty warriors,
    their jaws are ^note a grave, wide open,
   17   to devour your harvest and your bread,
  to devour your sons and your daughters,
  to devour your flocks and your herds,
  to devour your vines and your fig-trees.
  They shall batter down the cities in which you trust, ^note
    walled though they are.

18   But in those days, the Lord declares, I will still not make an end of you. 19   When you ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ I shall answer, ‘As you have forsaken me and served alien gods in your own land, so shall you serve foreigners ^note in a land that is not yours.’

Exhortations to Israel and Judah

   20   Tell this to the people of Jacob,
    proclaim it in Judah:
   21   Listen, you foolish and senseless people,
  who have eyes and see nothing,
  ears and hear nothing.
   22   Have you no fear of me? says the Lord;
    will you not shiver before me,
  before me, who made the shivering sand to bound the sea,
    a barrier it never can pass?
  Its waves heave and toss but they are powerless;
  roar as they may, they cannot pass.
   23   But this people has a rebellious and defiant heart,
    rebels they have been and now they are clean gone.
   24   They did not say to themselves,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
  who gives us the rains of autumn
    and spring showers in their turn,
  who brings us unfailingly
  fixed seasons of harvest.’
   25   But your wrongdoing has upset nature's order,
and your sins have kept from you her kindly gifts.
   26   For among my people there are wicked men,
    who lay snares like a fowler's net ^note
    and set deadly traps to catch men.
   27   Their houses are full of fraud,
  as a cage is full of birds.
  They grow rich and grand,
     28   bloated and rancorous;
  their thoughts ^note are all of evil,
    and they refuse to do justice, ^note
  the claims of the orphan they do not put right
  nor do they grant justice to the poor.
   29   Shall I not punish them for this?
    says the Lord;
  shall I not take vengeance
    on such a people?


   30   An appalling thing, an outrage,
  has appeared in this land:
31   prophets prophesy lies and priests go hand in hand with them,
  and my people love to have it so.
    How will you fare at the end of it all?

Exhortations to Israel and Judah

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