^{3 Ref} O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

^{4 Ref} Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

^{5 Ref} I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

^{6 Ref} Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

^{7 Ref} How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

^{8 Ref} They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

^{9 Ref} Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?