“And you have trusted in your evil, you have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge have led you astray. And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none but me.’
No one calls for righteousness, and no one pleads for truth. They trust in emptiness and speak worthlessness; they conceive trouble and bring forth wickedness.
No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no discharge in battle, and wrongness does not release those who are given to it.
because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave we have effected a vision. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it does not come to us, for we have made lying our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
“And now, hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who dwells complacently, who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none but me. I do not sit as a widow, nor do I know the loss of children.’
“Therefore, O sovereign, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your crookednesses by showing favour to the poor – your prosperity might be extended.”
This is the exultant city that is dwelling in safety, that said in her heart, “I am it, and there is none but me.” How has she become a waste, a place for beasts to lie down! Everyone who passes by her whistles and shakes his fist.