You feel safe in your wickedness and say, “No one can see me.” Your wisdom and knowledge have led you astray, so you say to yourself, “I’m the only one, and there’s no one else.”
No one has the power to prevent the spirit of life from leaving. No one has control over the day of his own death. There is no way to avoid the war ⌞against death⌟. Wickedness will not save wicked people ⌞from dying⌟.
You say, “We made a treaty with death and an agreement with the grave. When the overwhelming disaster passes by, it won’t matter to us, because we have taken refuge in our lies, and falsehood is our hiding place.”
How horrible it will be for those who try to hide their plans from the Lord. Their deeds are done in the dark, and they say, “No one can see us” and “No one can recognize us.”
They eat ashes because they are deceived. Their own misguided minds lead them astray. They can’t rescue themselves or ask themselves, “Isn’t what I hold in my right hand a false god?”
Now then, listen to this, you lover of pleasure. You live securely and say to yourself, “I’m the only one, and there’s no one else. I won’t live as a widow. I won’t suffer the loss of children.”
No one calls for justice, and no one pleads his case truthfully. People trust pointless arguments and speak lies. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
This is what the Lord says: Don’t let wise people brag about their wisdom. Don’t let strong people brag about their strength. Don’t let rich people brag about their riches.
God asked me, “Son of man, do you see what the leaders of the nation of Israel are doing in secret? Each of them is in the room where his god is, and each one of them is thinking, ‘The Lord doesn’t see me. The Lord has abandoned this land.’ ”
He answered me, “The wickedness of the nations of Israel and Judah is terrible. The land is filled with murder, and the city is filled with wrongdoing. They think that the Lord has abandoned the land and that he doesn’t see.
“That is why, Your Majesty, my best advice is that you stop sinning, and do what is right. Stop committing the same errors, and have pity on the poor. Maybe you can prolong your prosperity.”
Is this the arrogant city? Is this the city that used to live securely, the city that used to think to itself, “I’m the only one, and no one else exists but me”? What a wasteland it is now, a resting place for wild animals! All who pass by it will hiss and make an obscene gesture.