Jeremiah 5:3–9

³O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?

You struck them, but they felt no pain.

You finished them off,

but they refused to accept discipline.

They have made their faces harder than stone

and refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor;

they have played the fool,

for they do not know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.

⁵I will go to the powerful

and speak to them.

Surely they know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.”

But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke

and torn off the chains.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down,

a wolf from the desert will ravage them.

A leopard will lie in wait near their cities,

and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces.

For their rebellious acts are many,

and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

⁷“Why should I forgive you?

Your children have forsaken Me

and sworn by gods that are not gods.

I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery

and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions,

each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things?”

declares the LORD.

“Should I not avenge Myself

on such a nation as this?