Moreover, ¹  the Lord says, ²  “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ¹  They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ²  They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. ³ 

“Babylon must fall ¹  because of the Israelites she has killed, ²  just as the earth’s mortally wounded fell because of Babylon. ³ 

Even the soldiers ¹  from Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, people of Israel. ² 

I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured. ¹ 

So I will pull your skirt up over your face and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress! ¹ 

As a matter of fact, ¹  even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too. Even they have plotted to do away with you. ²  So do not trust them even when they say kind things ³  to you.

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? ¹  You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. ² 

No, ¹  a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding. Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.’ ² 

Yet even then ¹  I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn ¹  in the field because there is no grass.

“Moab has vaunted itself against me. So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath ¹  until he splashes ²  around in his own vomit, until others treat him as a laughingstock.

Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things? No, they are not at all ashamed. They do not even know how to blush! So they will die, just like others have died. ¹  They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,” says the Lord.

If I go out into the countryside, I see those who have been killed in battle. If I go into the city, I see those who are sick because of starvation. ¹  For both prophet and priest go about their own business in the land without having any real understanding.’” ² 

Even her mercenaries ¹  will prove to be like pampered, ²  well-fed calves. For they too will turn and run away. They will not stand their ground when ³  the time for them to be destroyed comes, the time for them to be punished.

Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ¹  Bring more guards! ²  Post them all around the city! ³  Put men in ambush! ⁴  For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁵ 

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

Moreover, you will come away from Egypt with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ¹  because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful and you will not gain any help from them. ²