¹⁴ And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

² For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, That his iniquity will not be found out and be hated.

¹⁶ But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth,

¹⁷ Seeing thou hatest instruction, And castest my words behind thee?

¹⁸ When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him, And hast been partaker with adulterers.

¹⁹ Thou givest thy mouth to evil, And thy tongue frameth deceit.

²⁰ Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; Thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

²¹ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: `But' I will reprove thee, and set `them' in order before thine eyes.

¹⁸ And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

¹⁹ Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

²² For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

²³ How canst thou say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: `thou art' a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

³⁴ Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

³⁵ Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

³⁶ Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷ From thence also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head: for Jehovah hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, and thou shalt not prosper with them.

¹³ Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?

¹⁴ Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?

¹⁵ And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape.

²² He saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I am an austere man, taking up that which I laid not down, and reaping that which I did not sow;

¹⁹ Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:

⁵ Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God.