God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ¹  on them.

The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe ¹  of Benjamin, saying, “How could such a wicked thing take place? ² 

May the evil deeds of the wicked ¹  come to an end! ²  But make the innocent ³  secure, ⁴  O righteous God, you who examine ⁵  inner thoughts and motives! ⁶ 

For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words.

“Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ¹  so that you may yet be delivered. How long will you continue to harbor up wicked schemes within you?

The person who sins is the one who will die. A son will not suffer ¹  for his father’s iniquity, and a father will not suffer ²  for his son’s iniquity; the righteous person will be judged according to his righteousness, and the wicked person according to his wickedness. ³ 

For he ¹  knows deceitful ²  men; when he sees evil, will he not ³  consider it? ⁴ 

See the one who is pregnant with wickedness, who conceives destructive plans, and gives birth to harmful lies – ¹ 

When the godly see this, they rejoice, and every sinner ¹  shuts his mouth.

Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment. Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ¹  Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ²  it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ³  to show no respect for me,” ⁴  says the Lord God who rules over all. ⁵ 

You must not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have intercourse with them. ¹  They are closely related to her ²  – it is lewdness. ³ 

Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ¹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ² 

No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹  I want you ²  to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, ³  and to break every burdensome yoke.

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations ¹  and the countries around her. ²  Indeed, they ³  have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

“Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹  You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ²  You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ³  You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁴ 

How long must the land be parched ¹  and the grass in every field be withered? How long ²  must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? ³  For these people boast, “God ⁴  will not see what happens to us.” ⁵ 

But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹  doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. ²  So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ³  I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁴ 

‘The defenders of the city will go out and fight with the Babylonians. ¹  But they will only fill those houses and buildings with the dead bodies of the people that I will kill in my anger and my wrath. ²  That will happen because I have decided to turn my back on ³  this city on account of the wicked things they have done. ⁴ 

This is the way ¹  of an adulterous ²  woman: she eats and wipes her mouth ³  and says, “I have not done wrong.” ⁴ 

So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ¹  In fact, those who challenge ²  God escape!’”