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The Wickedness of Jerusalem

3Ah, soiled, defiled,
   oppressing city!
² It has listened to no voice;
   it has accepted no correction.
It has not trusted in the Lord;
   it has not drawn near to its God.

³ The officials within it
   are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
   that leave nothing until the morning.
⁴ Its prophets are reckless,
   faithless persons;
its priests have profaned what is sacred,
   they have done violence to the law.
⁵ The Lord within it is righteous;
   he does no wrong.
Every morning he renders his judgement,
   each dawn without fail;
   but the unjust knows no shame.

⁶ I have cut off nations;
   their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
   so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
   without people, without inhabitants.
⁷ I said, ‘Surely the city^* will fear me,
   it will accept correction;
it will not lose sight^*
   of all that I have brought upon it.’
But they were the more eager
   to make all their deeds corrupt.