No one in Judah is honest

1Yahweh said to the people of Jerusalem, “Go up and down every street. Search in the marketplaces to find people who do what is fair/right,
who try to be faithful to me. If you find even one person like that, I will forgive the people of Jerusalem and not destroy their city.

2But when people there say, ‘I solemnly declare that as surely as Yahweh lives, I will do what he says,’ they are lying.”

3Yahweh, you are certainly [RHQ] searching for people who tell the truth. You struck/punished your people, but they did not pay any attention. You crushed them, but they ignored what you were telling them to do.
They were extremely stubborn [IDM] and refused to return to you.

4I thought, “We cannot expect these people to act righteously, because they are poor; they do not have any sense. They do not know the way Yahweh wants them to conduct their lives; they do not know what God requires them to do.

5So, I will go and talk to their leaders, because they surely know how God wants them to conduct their lives.” But they also have stopped obeying Yahweh [MET], and they will not allow him to lead them.

6Because of that, lions will come out of the forests and kill them; wolves from the desert will attack them;
leopards that lurk/wait outside their cities will maul anyone who walks outside the cities. Those things will happen because the people have sinned very much against God and have turned away from him very frequently.

7Yahweh says, “I cannot [RHQ] forgive these people; even their children have abandoned me. When they solemnly declare something, they ask their gods to show that what they say is true.
I gave my people everything that they needed, but they often went to the shrines of their idols and committed adultery there.

8Just like [MET] well-fed male horses neigh, wanting sex with female horses, each of the men desires to have sex with his neighbor’s wife.

9◄Should I not punish them for this [RHQ]?/I will certainly get revenge on this nation for this!► I will certainly get revenge [RHQ] on this nation whose people behave like that!

10I will say to your enemies, ‘The people of Judah and Israel are like a vineyard.
Go along the rows in their vineyards
and get rid of most of the people, but do not kill all of them. These people do not belong to me,
so get rid of them, like a gardener [MET] lops/cuts off branches from a vine.

11The people of Israel and Judah have turned away from me completely.’

12They have lied about me and said, ‘He will not punish us!
He will not cause us to experience disasters!
We will not experience wars or famines!

13What God’s prophets say is nothing but hot air! They do not have messages from God!
We would like the disasters that they predict to happen to them!’ ”

14So, this is what Yahweh, the Commander of the armies of angels in heaven, has said to me: “Because my people are saying those things, I will give you a message to tell them [MTY] that will be like [MET] a fire,
and these people will be like [MET] wood that the fire will burn up.

15Listen to this, you people of Israel:
I will bring the army of a distant nation to attack you. It is a very powerful nation that has existed for a long time. They speak a language that you do not know and which you will not be able to understand.

16Their soldiers are all very strong, and the arrows from their quivers [MET] will ◄send many Israeli men to their graves/cause many Israeli people to die►.

17They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields, and eat your bread. They will kill your sons and daughters,
and they will kill your flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. They will eat your grapes and your figs. They will also destroy your cities that have high walls around them and kill the people with their swords.

18But even when those things happen, I will not get rid of all of you.

19And when the survivors ask, ‘Why is Yahweh our God doing this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘You rejected him and worshiped foreign gods in your own land,
so now you will become slaves of foreigners in a land that is not your land.’ ”

20Yahweh said to me, “Proclaim this to the people of Israel and Judah:

21Listen to this, you people who are foolish and who do not have any sense: You have eyes, but it is as though you cannot see;
you have ears, but it is as though you cannot hear.

22Why do you not revere me [RHQ]? You should [RHQ] tremble when you are in my presence! I, Yahweh, am the one who put a barrier along the shores so that the waters of the ocean cannot cross it and flood the land. The waves roll and roar, but they cannot go past that barrier.

23But you people are not like the waves that obey me. You people are very stubborn and rebellious.
You have constantly turned away from me.

24You do not say to yourselves, ‘We should revere Yahweh our God,
the one who sends us rain at the times when we need it,
the one who causes the grain to become ripe at the harvest season.’

25It is because of the wrong things that you have done, that those good things have not happened; it is because of the sins that you have committed that you have been prevented from receiving those blessings.

26Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush/attack people like [SIM] men who hunt birds ◄put out nets/set traps► to catch them.

27Like a hunter has a cage full of birds that he has captured, their homes are full of things that they have gotten by deceiving others. So now they are very rich and powerful.

28They are big and fat, and there is no limit to the evil things that they have done.
They do not try to defend orphans in the courtrooms,
and they do not help poor people to get what they have a right to receive.

29So I will certainly [RHQ] punish them for doing those things. I will certainly [RHQ] ◄get revenge on their nation/do to their nation what they deserve►.

30Very appalling/horrible and terrible [DOU] things are happening in this country:

31Prophets speak only lies and priests rule by their own authority, and you people like that! But when you start to experience disasters, what will you do [RHQ]?”