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Israel Is Corrupt

I feel so empty inside—
like someone starving
    for grapes or figs,
after the vines and trees
    have all been picked clean.
No one is loyal to God;
    no one does right.
Everyone is brutal
and eager to deceive
    everyone else.
People cooperate to commit crime.
Judges and leaders demand bribes,
    and rulers cheat in court.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 7.3 court: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 3.

Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

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