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As when Abraham pleaded with God over Sodom’s fate (Genesis 18:23–32), God is willing to spare Jerusalem if the prophet can find a single person, honest and true, living there.

Jeremiah: O Eternal One, aren’t You looking for truth and integrity?
        You struck them, but they did not flinch.
    You destroyed them, but they did not yield to Your correction.
        They wouldn’t change their ways.
    They have set their stony faces against You
        defiant and determined, refusing to repent.

And I thought to myself, “How could they know any better?
    They are poor and senseless people, unfamiliar with the ways of the Eternal,
Unaware of what their God requires.
So I will go to their leaders and share what I see.
    They will do the right thing because they know the Eternal’s ways.
Surely, they will do what their God requires.”
    But to a person, I was wrong; leaders were no different;
They, too, had broken the yoke, burst the bonds,
    and pulled away from God’s guidance and correction.

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Lord, do not your eyes(A) look for truth?
    You struck(B) them, but they felt no pain;
    you crushed them, but they refused correction.(C)
They made their faces harder than stone(D)
    and refused to repent.(E)
I thought, “These are only the poor;
    they are foolish,(F)
for they do not know(G) the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.
So I will go to the leaders(H)
    and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
    and torn off the bonds.(I)

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