⁵ Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way.

¹⁶ For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry without end: for from me breath goes out; and I it was who made the souls.

¹² Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever.

¹ Sorrow to her who is uncontrolled and unclean, the cruel town!

² She gave no attention to the voice, she had no use for teaching, she put no faith in the Lord, she did not come near to her God.

³ Her rulers are like loud-voiced lions in her; her judges are wolves of the evening, crushing up the bones before the morning.

⁴ Her prophets are good-for-nothing persons, full of deceit: her priests have made the holy place unclean and have gone violently against the law.

⁵ The Lord in her is upright; he will not do evil; every morning he lets his righteousness be seen, he is unchanging; but the evil-doer has no sense of shame.

³ Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.

¹ A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.

⁶ See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.

⁹ Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.

⁸ The Lord is kind and full of pity, not quickly made angry, but ever ready to have mercy.

⁹ His feeling will no longer be bitter; he will not keep his wrath for ever.

⁵ Will you go on being angry with us for ever? will you keep your wrath against us through all the long generations?

⁷ Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer?

⁸ Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to nothing?

⁹ Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies shut up by his wrath? (Selah.)