1 Pereikite Jeruzalės gatves, žiūrėkite ir stebėkite, ieškokite aikštėse; jei rasite nors vieną, kuris elgiasi teisingai ir siekia tiesos, tada Aš jai atleisiu.

2 Nors jie sako: "Kaip gyvas Viešpats", iš tikrųjų jie melagingai prisiekia.

3 Viešpatie, argi tavo akys nenukreiptos į tiesą? Tu baudei juos, bet jie neatgailavo; prispaudei juos, bet jie nepriėmė pataisymo. Jie pasidarė kietesni už uolą, atsisakė atsiversti.

4 Todėl aš sakiau: "Tai vargšai; jie kvaili, nes nežino Viešpaties kelių, nepažįsta Dievo įstatymo.

5 Eisiu pas kilminguosius ir su jais kalbėsiu, nes jie žino Viešpaties kelius ir Jo įstatymą". Tačiau jie taip pat sulaužė jungą, sutraukė pančius.

6 Todėl sudraskys juos liūtas, suplėšys stepių vilkas. Leopardas tykos prie jų miestų; kas tik išeis, bus sudraskytas, nes gausu jų nusikaltimų, jų paklydimas didelis.

7 "Kaip Aš galėčiau tau atleisti? Tavo vaikai paliko mane ir prisiekė tuo, kas nėra dievai. Aš juos pasotinau, o jie svetimavo ir lankė paleistuvių namus.

8 Jie kaip nupenėti eržilai geidė savo artimo žmonos.

9 Ar neturėčiau tokių nubausti?­ sako Viešpats.­Ar šitokiai tautai neturėčiau atkeršyti?

10 Eikite į vynuogynus ir naikinkite, bet ne iki galo. Pašalinkite atžalas, nes jos nepriklauso Viešpačiui!

11 Labai neištikimi buvo Izraelis ir Judas",­sako Viešpats.

12 Jie išsigynė Viešpaties ir sakė: "Tai ne Jis. Nesulauksime nelaimės, nematysime nei kardo, nei bado".

13 Pranašai taps vėjais, jie neturės žodžių­taip jiems atsitiks.

14 Todėl Viešpats, kareivijų Dievas, sako: "Kaip jie kalbėjo, taip jiems įvyks. Aš padarysiu savo žodžius tavo burnoje ugnimi, o šitą tautą­malkomis, kurias ugnis sudegins.

15 ‘Izraeli, Aš atvesiu prieš jus tautą iš toli,­sako Viešpats,­galingą tautą, labai seną tautą, kurios kalbos tu nemoki ir nesupranti, ką ji kalba.

16 Jų strėlinė kaip atviras kapas; jie visi yra karžygiai!

17 Jie suvalgys tavo derlių ir duoną, skirtą tavo sūnums ir dukterims, ir tavo avis bei galvijus; nurinks tavo vynmedžius ir figmedžius; jie sunaikins sustiprintus miestus, kuriais pasitikėjai.

18 Tačiau tada nesunaikinsiu jūsų visų’.

19 Kai jie klaus: ‘Už ką Viešpats, mūsų Dievas, mums taip padarė?’, tu jiems atsakysi: ‘Kaip jūs palikote mane ir tarnavote svetimiems dievams savo krašte, taip tarnausite svetimiesiems ne savo šalyje’ ".

20 Skelbkite Jokūbo namams ir praneškite Judui:

21 "Klausykitės, kvaili ir neprotingi žmonės, kurie turite akis, bet nematote, kurie turite ausis, bet negirdite!

22 Argi nebijote manęs?­sako Viešpats.­Argi nedrebėsite prieš mane? Aš sulaikiau jūrą smėlio riba kaip amžina užtvara, kurios ji neperžengs, nors ir siaus. Nors bangos ir daužytų ją, nepralauš jos.

23 Bet šita tauta yra užsispyrusi ir kietos širdies, ji pasitraukė ir nuėjo.

24 Ji nepagalvojo: ‘Reikia bijotis Viešpaties, savo Dievo, kuris tinkamu laiku duoda ankstyvą ir vėlyvą lietų ir išsaugo mums mūsų derlių!’

25 Jūsų kaltės nukreipė tai, ir nuodėmės patraukė nuo jūsų gėrybes.

26 Mano tautoje yra nedorėlių, kurie susilenkę tyko kaip paukštgaudžiai, spendžia žabangus žmonėms pagauti.

27 Kaip krepšys pilnas paukščių, taip jų namai pilni apgaulės; tokiu būdu jie tapo žymūs ir pralobo.

28 Jie taip nutuko, kad net blizga, jų nedorybei nėra ribų. Jie negina našlaičių teisme, tačiau klesti. Jie nežiūri vargšo teisių.

29 Ar neturėčiau tokių bausti?­sako Viešpats.­Ar šitokiai tautai neturėčiau atkeršyti?

30 Siaubingų ir bjaurių dalykų vyksta šalyje:

31 pranašai pranašauja melus, kunigai moko, kaip jiems naudinga, o mano tauta tai mėgsta! Bet ką darysite, kai ateis galas?"

1 Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness.

2 And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false.

3 O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back.

4 Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God.

5 I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands.

6 And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.

7 How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women.

8 They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife.

9 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

10 Go up against her vines and make waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.

11 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been very false to me, says the Lord.

12 They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not see the sword or be short of food:

13 And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them.

14 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said: Because you have said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they will be burned up by it.

15 See, I will send you a nation from far away, O people of Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old nation, a nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not get the sense of their words.

16 Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war.

17 They will take all the produce of your fields, which would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they will take your flocks and your herds: they will take all your vines and your fig-trees: and with the sword they will make waste your walled towns in which you put your faith.

18 But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your destruction be complete.

19 And it will come about, when you say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them, As you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange gods in your land, so will you be servants to strange men in a land which is not yours.

20 Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying,

21 Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing:

22 Have you no fear of me? says the Lord; will you not be shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as a limit for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it? and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way; though the sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go past it.

23 But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are broken loose and gone.

24 And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us give worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the spring rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered weeks of the grain-cutting.

25 Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you.

26 For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.

27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth.

28 They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.

29 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

30 A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;

31 The prophets give false words and the priests give decisions by their direction; and my people are glad to have it so: and what will you do in the end?