5

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not your"s.

Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.

Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD"s.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour"s wife.