The holy man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood, every one hunteth his brother to death.
THE just perisheth and no man layeth it to heart: and men of mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the just man is taken away from before the face of evil.
Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them: and after this, I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks.
Behold this day thy eyes have seen, that the Lord hath delivered thee into my hand, in the cave, and I had a thought to kill thee, but my eye hath spared thee. For I said: I will not put out my hand against my lord, because he is the Lord's anointed.
And now let not my blood be shed upon the earth before the Lord: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as the partridge is hunted in the mountains.
I attended and hearkened; no man speaketh what is good. There is none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done? They are all turned to their own course, as a horse rushing to the battle.
They have taken gifts in thee to shed blood: thou hast taken usury and increase and hast covetously oppressed thy neighbours: and then hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust is not gone out of it. Cast it out piece by piece there hath no lot fallen upon it.
Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over, and a net spread upon Thabor.
But my people, on the contrary, are risen up as an enemy: you have taken away the cloak off from the coat: and them that passed harmless you have turned to war.
And I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: behold I will deliver the men, every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall destroy the land, and I will not deliver it out of their hand.
And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against his neighbour: the child shall make it tumult against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.