3:1 The filthy, stained city is as good as dead;
the city filled with oppressors is finished!
3:2 She is disobedient;
she refuses correction.
She does not trust the Lord;
she does not seek the advice of her God.
3:3 Her princes are as fierce as roaring lions;
her rulers are as hungry as wolves in the desert,
who completely devour their prey by morning.
3:4 Her prophets are proud;
they are deceitful men.
Her priests defile what is holy;
they break God’s laws.
3:5 The just Lord resides within her;
he commits no unjust acts.
Every morning he reveals his justice.
At dawn he appears without fail.
Yet the unjust know no shame.
3:6 “I destroyed nations;
their walled cities are in ruins.
I turned their streets into ruins;
no one passes through them.
Their cities are desolate;
no one lives there.
3:7 I thought, ‘Certainly you will respect me!
Now you will accept correction!’
If she had done so, her home would not be destroyed
by all the punishments I have threatened.
But they eagerly sinned
in everything they did.
3:8 Therefore you must wait patiently for me,” says the Lord,
“for the day when I attack and take plunder.
I have decided to gather nations together
and assemble kingdoms,
so I can pour out my fury on them –
all my raging anger.
For the whole earth will be consumed
by my fiery anger.