3 The ox knows his owner,and the donkey his master’s crib;but Israel doesn’t know,my people don’t consider.”
4 Ah sinful nation,a people loaded with iniquity,offspring of evildoers,children who deal corruptly!They have forsaken the Lord.They have despised the Holy One of Israel.They are estranged and backward.
5 Why should you be beaten more,that you revolt more and more?The whole head is sick,and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it:wounds, welts, and open sores.They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.
7 Your country is desolate.Your cities are burned with fire.Strangers devour your land in your presence,and it is desolate,as overthrown by strangers.
8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,like a hut in a field of melons,like a besieged city.
9 Unless the Lord of Hosts had left to us a very small remnant,we would have been as Sodom;we would have been like Gomorrah.