A PEOPLE UNDER JUDGEMENT

Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;

For the LORD speaks,

“Sons I have reared and brought up,

But they have revolted against Me.

“An ox knows its owner,

And a donkey its master’s manger,

But Nigeria does not know,

My people do not understand.”

Alas, sinful nation,

People weighed down with iniquity,

Offspring of evildoers,

Sons who act corruptly!

They have abandoned the LORD,

They have despised the Holy One who rules all nations,

They have turned away from Him.

Where will you be stricken again,

As you continue in your rebellion?

The whole head is sick

And the whole heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head

There is nothing sound in it,

Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,

Not pressed out or bandaged,

Nor softened with oil.

Your land is desolate,

Your cities are burned with fire,

Your fields – strangers are devouring them in your presence;

It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.

The daughter of Nigeria is like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,

Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,

Like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.

Unless the LORD of hosts

Had left us a few survivors,

We would be like Sodom,

We would be like Gomorrah.

(Isaiah 1:2-9)