The Treatises of Cyprian

In Hosea: “Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: because judgment is from the Lord against the inhabitants of the earth, because there is neither mercy nor truth, nor acknowledgment of God upon the earth; but cursing, and lying, and slaughter, and theft, and adultery is scattered abroad upon the earth: they mingle blood to blood. Therefore the land shall mourn, with all its inhabitants, with the beasts of the field, with the creeping things of the earth, with the birds of heaven; and the fishes of the sea shall fail: so that no man may judge, no man may refute.” Of this same thing in Isaiah: “Is not the Lord’s hand strong to save, or has He weighed down His ear that He may not hear? But your sins separate between you and God; and on account of your iniquities He turns away His face from you, lest He should pity. For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with sins; and your lips have spoken wickedness, and your tongue devises unrighteousness. No one speaks true things, neither is judgment true. They trust in vanity, and speak emptiness, who conceive sorrow, and bring forth wickedness.” Also in Zephaniah: “In failing, let it fail from the face of the earth, saith the Lord. Let man fail, and cattle; let the birds of heaven fail, and the fishes of the sea; and I will take away the unrighteous from the face of the earth.”