For the Lord comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it and will no longer cover its slain.
Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust, for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished garden; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!
transgressing and denying the Lord and turning away from following our God, talking oppression and revolt, conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked.