"When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood.

The city that once was faithful is behaving like a whore! At one time it was filled with righteous people, but now only murderers remain.

I punished you, but it did no good; you would not let me correct you. Like a raging lion, you have murdered your prophets.

Your clothes are stained with the blood of the poor and innocent, not with the blood of burglars. "But in spite of all this,

But you can only see your selfish interests; you kill the innocent and violently oppress your people. The LORD has spoken.

"Everything is in confusion ---the land is full of murders and the cities are full of violence.

God answered, "The people of Israel and Judah are guilty of terrible sins. They have committed murder all over the land and have filled Jerusalem with crime. They say that I, the LORD, have abandoned their country and that I don't see them.

"Mortal man," he said, "are you ready to judge the city that is full of murderers? Make clear to her all the disgusting things she has done.

So then---as surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God---death is your fate, and you cannot escape it. You are guilty of murder, and murder will follow you.

They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another.

You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice.

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.

There is not an honest person left in the land, no one loyal to God. Everyone is waiting for a chance to commit murder. Everyone hunts down their own people.

"I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said. "What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"

"Look, you put your trust in deceitful words.

They are always ready to tell lies; dishonesty instead of truth rules the land. The LORD says, "My people do one evil thing after another and do not acknowledge me as their God."

They all mislead their friends, and no one tells the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie and will not give up their sinning. They do one violent thing after another, and one deceitful act follows another. The LORD says that his people reject him.

So the Sovereign LORD says to them, "Your words are false, and your visions are lies. I am against you.

The LORD says, "People deceive the king and his officers by their evil plots.

"They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false.

Your rich people exploit the poor, and all of you are liars.

Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron.