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²⁹For the noise of the horsemen and bowmen

The whole city fleeth;

They go into the thickets,

And climb up upon the rocks;

Every city is forsaken,

And not a man dwelleth therein.

³⁰And thou, that art spoiled, what doest thou,

That thou clothest thyself with scarlet,

That thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,

That thou enlargest thine eyes with paint?

In vain dost thou make thyself fair;

Thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.

³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail,

The anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child,

The voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath,

That spreadeth her hands:

'Woe is me, now! for my soul fainteth

Before the murderers.'

 

5Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,

And see now, and know,

And seek in the broad places thereof,

If ye can find a man,

If there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth;

And I will pardon her.

²And though they say: 'As the Lord liveth',

Surely they swear falsely.

³O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon truth?

Thou hast stricken them, but they were not affected;

Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction;

They have made their faces harder than a rock;

They have refused to return.

⁴And I said: 'Surely these are poor,

They are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord,

Nor the ordinance of their God; ⁵I will get me unto the great men,

And will speak unto them;

For they know the way of the Lord,

And the ordinance of their God.'

But these had altogether broken the yoke,

And burst the bands.

⁶Wherefore a lion out of the forest doth slay them,

A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them,

A leopard watcheth over their cities,

Every one that goeth out thence is torn in pieces;

Because their transgressions are many,

Their backslidings are increased.

 

⁷Wherefore should I pardon thee?

The children have forsaken Me,

And sworn by no-gods;

And when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery,

And assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.

⁸They are become as well-fed horses, lusty stallions;

Every one neigheth after his neighbour's wife.

⁹Shall I not punish for these things?

Saith the Lord;

And shall not My soul be avenged

On such a nation as this?

 

¹⁰Go ye up into her rows, and destroy,

But make not a full end;

Take away her shoots;

For they are not the Lord's.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

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