16. Their quiver is as an open sepulcher,they all are mighty men.
17. They will eat up your harvest and your breadwhich your sons and your daughters should eat.They will eat up your flocks and your herds;they will eat up your vines and your fig trees;they will impoverish your fenced cities,in which you trusted, with the sword.
18. Nevertheless in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.
19. It shall come to pass when they say, “Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “As you have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
20. Declare this in the house of Jacoband publish it in Judah, saying:
21. Hear this now, O foolish people and without understanding,who have eyes but do not see,who have ears but do not hear.
22. Do you not fear Me? says the Lord.Will you not tremble at My presence?For I have placed the sand for the boundary of the seaby a perpetual decree so that it cannot pass over it.And though the waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail;though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.
23. But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart;they have revolted and gone aside.
24. They do not say in their heart,“Let us now fear the Lord our God,who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25. Your iniquities have turned away these things,and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26. For among My people are found wicked men.They lie in wait, as he who sets snares;they set a trap, they catch men.
27. As a cage is full of birds,so are their houses full of deceit.Therefore they have become great and rich.
28. They are fat, they are sleek.Indeed, they excel in deeds of wickedness.They do not judge the cause of the fatherless, so that they may prosper;and the right of the needy they do not defend.
29. Shall I not punish them for these things?says the Lord.Shall not My soul be avengedon such a nation as this?
30. An appalling and horrible thinghas been committed in the land.
31. The prophets prophesy falsely,and the priests rule by their own authority;and My people love to have it so.Yet what will you do in the end?