1Yahweh said to the people of Jerusalem, “Go up and down every street.
2But when people there say, ‘I solemnly declare that as surely as Yahweh lives, I will do what he says,’
3Yahweh, you are certainly [RHQ] searching for people who tell the truth.
4I thought, “We cannot expect these people to act righteously, because they are poor;
5So, I will go and talk to their leaders,
6Because of that, lions will come out of the forests and kill them;
7Yahweh says, “I cannot [RHQ] forgive these people;
8Just like [MET] well-fed male horses neigh, wanting sex with female horses,
9◄Should I not punish them for this [RHQ]?/I will certainly get revenge on this nation for this!►
10I will say to your enemies, ‘The people of Judah and Israel are like a vineyard.
11The people of Israel and Judah have turned away from me completely.’
12They have lied about me and said,
13What God’s prophets say is nothing but hot air!
14So, this is what Yahweh, the Commander of the armies of angels in heaven, has said to me:
15Listen to this, you people of Israel:
16Their soldiers are all very strong,
17They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields,
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?’
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:
22Why do you not revere me [RHQ]?
23But you people are not like the waves that obey me.
24You do not say to yourselves,
25It is because of the wrong things that you have done, that those good things have not happened;
26Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush/attack people
27Like a hunter has a cage full of birds that he has captured,
28They are big and fat,
29So I will certainly [RHQ] punish them for doing those things.
30Very appalling/horrible and terrible [DOU] things are happening in this country:
31Prophets speak only lies