4. Woe to the sinful nation,a people whose guilt is great,a brood of evildoers,children given to corruption!They have forsaken the Lord;they have spurned the Holy One of Israeland turned their backs on him.
5. Why should you be beaten any more?Why do you persist in rebellion?Your whole head is injured,your whole heart afflicted.
6. From the sole of your foot to the top of your headthere is no soundness –only wounds and bruisesand open sores,not cleansed or bandagedor soothed with oil.
7. Your country is desolate,your cities burned with fire;your fields are being stripped by foreignersright before you,laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
8. Daughter Zion is leftlike a shelter in a vineyard,like a hut in a cucumber field,like a city under siege.
9. Unless the Lord Almightyhad left us some survivors,we would have become like Sodom,we would have been like Gomorrah.
10. Hear the word of the Lord,you rulers of Sodom;listen to the instruction of our God,you people of Gomorrah!
11. ‘The multitude of your sacrifices –what are they to me?’ says the Lord.‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings,of rams and the fat of fattened animals;I have no pleasurein the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12. When you come to appear before me,who has asked this of you,this trampling of my courts?
13. Stop bringing meaningless offerings!Your incense is detestable to me.New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations –I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivalsI hate with all my being.They have become a burden to me;I am weary of bearing them.