"The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.

"And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save [you.]

Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, And [there was] no one to bury [them.]

For the LORD has poured out on you The spirit of deep sleep, And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, [namely,] the seers.

Therefore justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, [but] we walk in blackness!

We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if [we had] no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; [We are] as dead [men] in desolate places.

They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.

"Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch."

Then [some] of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"

Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

"Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' -- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked --

The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, And those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men [are] left.

Thus says the LORD: "Where [is] the certificate of your mother's divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; For our transgressions [are] with us, And [as for] our iniquities, we know them:

Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter.

Have you not brought this on yourself, In that you have forsaken the LORD your God When He led you in the way?

Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that [it is] an evil and bitter [thing] That you have forsaken the LORD your God, And the fear of Me [is] not in you," Says the Lord GOD of hosts.

"Your ways and your doings Have procured these [things] for you. This [is] your wickedness, Because it is bitter, Because it reaches to your heart."

Jerusalem has sinned gravely, Therefore she has become vile. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away.

"The yoke of my transgressions was bound; They were woven together by His hands, [And] thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of [those whom] I am not able to withstand.

" The LORD is righteous, For I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now, all peoples, And behold my sorrow; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity.

Because of the sins of her prophets [And] the iniquities of her priests, Who shed in her midst The blood of the just.

They cried out to them, "Go away, unclean! Go away, go away, Do not touch us!" When they fled and wandered, [Those] among the nations said, "They shall no longer dwell [here."]

The crown has fallen [from] our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our heart is faint; Because of these [things] our eyes grow dim;

"The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.

"Her princes in her midst [are] like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.

"The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.

"Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord GOD.

"we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

"O Lord, righteousness [belongs] to You, but to us shame of face, as [it is] this day -- to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

"To the Lord our God [belong] mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

"Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.

"As [it is] written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

"And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as [it is] this day -- we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

"Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name."

Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity,

Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No harm can come upon us."

Yet the land shall be desolate Because of those who dwell in it, And for the fruit of their deeds.

Then he said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down, and [some] of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot.

So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of [her] hands.

'and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, "Here [lies] Jezebel." ' "

The dead bodies of Your servants They have given [as] food for the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.

Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, And [there was] no one to bury [them.]

Who perished at En Dor, [Who] became [as] refuse on the earth.

For death has come through our windows, Has entered our palaces, To kill off the children -- [no longer to be] outside! [And] the young men -- [no longer] on the streets!

Speak, "Thus says the LORD: 'Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, Like cuttings after the harvester, And no one shall gather [them.'] "

"And I will appoint over them four forms [of destruction,"] says the LORD: "the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

"They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, [but] they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth."

"Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, And pour out their [blood] By the force of the sword; Let their wives [become] widows And bereaved of their children. Let their men be put to death, Their young men [be] slain By the sword in battle.

"Young and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword; You have slain [them] in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered [and] not pitied.

They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.

"I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; Your young men I killed with a sword, Along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD.