3
O Yahweh, don`t your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4
Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don`t know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:
5
I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6
Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their backsliding is increased.
7
How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes` houses.
8
They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor`s wife.
9
Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?