No One Is Just

¹“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.

²Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’they are swearing falsely.”

³O 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 stoneand refused to repent.

⁴Then 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.

⁵I will go to the powerfuland 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 yokeand torn off the chains.

⁶Therefore 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 Meand sworn by gods that are not gods.I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adulteryand assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions,each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things?”declares the LORD.“Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go 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.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judahhave been utterly unfaithful to Me,”declares the LORD.

¹²They 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.

¹³The prophets are but wind,for the word is not in them.So let their own predictions befall them.”

Judgment Proclaimed

¹⁴Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says:“Because you have spoken this word,I will make My words a fire in your mouthand this people the wood it consumes.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you,O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.“It is an established nation,an ancient nation,a nation whose language you do not knowand whose speech you do not understand.

¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves;they are all mighty men.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and food;they will consume your sons and daughters;they will eat up your flocks and herds;they will feed on your vines and fig trees.With the sword they will destroythe fortified cities in which you trust.”

¹⁸“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah:

²¹“Hear this,O foolish and senseless people,who have eyes but do not see,who have ears but do not hear.

²²Do you not fear Me?”declares the LORD.“Do you not tremble before Me,the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea,an enduring barrier it cannot cross?The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.They roar but cannot cross it.

²³But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.They have turned aside and gone away.

²⁴They have not said in their hearts,‘Let us fear the LORD our God,who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season,who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

²⁵Your iniquities have diverted these from you;your sins have deprived you of My bounty.

²⁶For among My people are wicked men;they watch like fowlers lying in wait;they set a trap to catch men.

²⁷Like cages full of birds,so their houses are full of deceit.Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek,and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked.They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless,that they might prosper;nor have they defendedthe rights of the needy.

²⁹Should I not punish them for these things?”declares the LORD.“Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?

³⁰A horrible and shocking thinghas happened in the land.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely,and the priests rule by their own authority.My people love it so,but what will you do in the end?

A Lament over Zion

¹Oh, that my head were a spring of water,and my eyes a fountain of tears!I would weep day and nightover the slain daughter of my people.

²If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness,I would abandon my people and depart from them,for they are all adulterers,a crowd of faithless people.

³“They bend their tongues like bows;lies prevail over truth in the land.For they proceed from evil to evil,and they do not take Me into account,”declares the LORD.

⁴“Let everyone guard against his neighbor;do not trust any brother,for every brother deals craftily,and every friend spreads slander.

⁵Each one betrays his friend;no one tells the truth.They have taught their tongues to lie;they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

⁶You dwellin the midst of deception;in their deceit they refuse to know Me,”declares the LORD.

⁷Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says:“Behold, I will refine them and test them,for what else can I dobecause ofthe daughter of My people?

⁸Their tongues are deadly arrows;they speak deception.With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor,but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things?declares the LORD.Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?”

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness pasture,for they have been scorched so no one passes through,and the lowing of cattle is not heard.Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled;they have gone away.

¹¹“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,a haunt for jackals;and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?

¹³And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice.

¹⁴Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”

¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

¹⁶I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

¹⁷This is what the LORD of Hosts says:“Take note, and summon the wailing women;send for the most skillful among them.

¹⁸Let them come quicklyand take up a lament over us,that our eyes may overflow with tears,and our eyelids may gush with water.

¹⁹For the sound of wailingis heard from Zion:‘How devastated we are!How great is our shame!For we have abandoned the landbecause our dwellings have been torn down.’”

²⁰Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD.Open your ears to the word of His mouth.Teach your daughters to wail,and one another to lament.

²¹For death has climbed in through our windows;it has entered our fortressesto cut off the children from the streets,the young men from the town squares.

²²Declare that this is what the LORD says:“The corpses of men will fall like dungupon the open field,like newly cut grain behind the reaper,with no one to gather it.”

²³This is what the LORD says:“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,nor the strong man in his strength,nor the wealthy man in his riches.

²⁴But let him who boasts boast in this,that he understands and knows Me,that I am the LORD,who exercises loving devotion,justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,”declares the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

Various Laws

¹If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it;be sure to return it to your brother.

²If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him.

³And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

⁴If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

⁵A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

⁶If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.

⁷You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled—both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

¹⁰Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

¹¹Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

¹²You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

Marriage Violations

¹³Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

¹⁴and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

¹⁵Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate

¹⁶and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her.

¹⁷And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silverand give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

²¹she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²²If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²⁵But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

²⁶Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

²⁷When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

²⁹then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver,and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Give Ear to My Words

¹Give ear to my words, O LORD;consider my groaning.

²Attend to the sound of my cry,my King and my God,for to You I pray.

³In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice;at daybreak I lay my plea before Youand wait in expectation.

⁴For You are not a God who delights in wickedness;no evil can dwell with You.

⁵The boastful cannot stand in Your presence;You hate all workers of iniquity.

⁶You destroy those who tell lies;the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

⁷But I will enter Your houseby the abundance of Your loving devotion;in reverence I will bow downtoward Your holy temple.

⁸Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousnessbecause of my enemies;make straight Your way before me.

⁹For not a word they speak can be trusted;destruction lies within them.Their throats are open graves;their tongues practice deceit.

¹⁰Declare them guilty, O God;let them fall by their own devices.Drive them out for their many transgressions,for they have rebelled against You.

¹¹But let all who take refuge in You rejoice;let them ever shout for joy.May You shelter them,that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.

¹²For surely You, O LORD, bless the righteous;You surround them with the shield of Your favor.