^{3 Ref} O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have 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} Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:

^{5 Ref} I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

^{6 Ref} Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their backsliding is increased.

^{7 Ref} How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

^{8 Ref} They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

^{9 Ref} Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?