6. Therefore a lion out of the forest will slay them,and a wolf from the deserts will destroy them;a leopard will watch over their cities.Everyone who goes out from there will be torn in pieces,because their transgressions are manyand their backslidings have increased.
7. How shall I pardon you for this?Your children have forsaken Meand sworn by those who are not gods.When I had fed them to the full,then they committed adulteryand assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8. They were as fed horses in the morning;everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9. Shall I not punish for these things? says the Lord,and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10. Go up upon her walls and destroy,but make not a full end.Take away her battlements.For they are not the Lord’s.
11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judahhave dealt very treacherously againstMe,says the Lord.
12. They have lied about the Lord,and said, “Not He.Neither shall evil come upon us,nor shall we see sword or famine.”
13. And the prophets shall become wind,and the word is not in them.Thus it shall be done to them!
14. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts: Because you speak this word,indeed I will make My words in your mouth fireand this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15. Truly, I will bring a nation upon you from far,O house of Israel, says the Lord.It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation,a nation whose language you do not know,nor do you understand what they say.
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.