For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me.
There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death: and there is no release from that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwell securely, that say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
Then said he unto me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his idols? for they say, The LORD sees us not; the LORD has forsaken the land.
Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD sees not.
Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto you, and break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of your tranquility.
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt securely, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how has she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! everyone that passes by her shall hiss, and shake his fist.