r voice as of travail I hear, 31
Anguish as hers that beareth,
The voice of the daughter of Sion agasp,
he spreadeth her hands:
"Woe unto me, but it faints,
My life to the butchers!"

The next poem, Ch. V. 1-13, says little of the Scythians, possibly only in
verse 6, but details the moral reasons for the doom with which they
threatened the people. It describes the Prophet's search through Jerusalem
for an honest, God-fearing man and his failure to find one. Hence the
fresh utterance of judgment. Perjury and whoredom are rife, with a
callousness to chastisement already inflicted. Some have relegated
Jeremiah's visit to the capital to a year after 621-20 when the
deuteronomic reforms had begun and Josiah had removed the rural priests to
the Temple.(220) But, as we have seen, Anathoth lay so near to Jerusalem,
and intercourse between them was naturally so constant, that Jeremiah may
well have gained the following experience before he left his village for
residence in the city. The position of the poem among the Scythian Songs,
along with the possible allusion to the Scythians in verse 6, suggests a
date before 620. There is no introduction.

Range ye the streets of Jerusalem, V. 1
Look now and know,
And search her broad places,
If a man ye can find--
If there be that does justice,
Aiming at honesty.
[That I may forgive them(221)]
Though they say, "As God liveth," 2
Falsely(222) they swear
LORD, are Thine eyes upon lies(?) 3
And not on the truth(223)?
Thou hast smitten, they ail not,
Consumed them, they take not correction.
Their faces set harder than rock,
They refuse to return.
But I said, "Ah, they are the poor, 4
And therefore(224) the foolish!
"They know not the Way of the Lord,
The Rule of their God.
"To the great I will get me, 5
With them let me speak.
"For they know the Way of the Lord,
And the Rule of their God."
Ah, together they have broken the yoke,
They have burst the bonds!
So a lion from the jungle shall smite them, 6
A wolf of the waste destroy,
The leopard shall prowl round their towns,
All faring forth shall be torn.
For many have been their rebellions,
Profuse their backslidings.
How shall I pardon thee this-- 7
Thy children have left Me,
And swear by no-gods.
I gave them their