For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Jehovah. And they shall come, and they shall each one set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its wall all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

And they shall fight against you; but they shall not overcome you. For I am with you, says Jehovah, to deliver you.

So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

Nor did they say, Where is Jehovah who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of dry places, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man lived?

The priests did not say, Where is Jehovah? And they who handle the Law did not know Me; the shepherds also rebelled against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things not profitable.

For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

The young lions roared against him; they gave their voice. And they made his land a waste; his cities are burned without inhabitant.

a wild ass used to the wilderness; in the desire of her passion she snuffs at the wind; in her time who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not tire themselves; in her month they will find her.

As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their rulers, and their priests, and their prophets;

saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You gave me birth. For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us!

But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

In vain I have stricken your sons; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and will be for another man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly defiled? But you play the harlot with many lovers; yet come back to Me, says Jehovah.

And it will be when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah! Nor shall it come to mind; nor shall they remember it; nor shall they visit it; nor shall it be made any more.

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. Nor shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.

A voice was heard on the high places weeping, cryings of the sons of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

And you shall swear, Jehovah lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory.

Tell it to the nations: Behold! proclaim against Jerusalem! Besiegers are going to come from a distant land; and they will set their voice against the cities of Judah.

Like watchmen of a field, they are against her all around; because she rebelled against Me, says Jehovah.

For My people are foolish; they have not known Me; they are stupid sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

I looked on the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked on the mountains, and, lo, they quaked; and all the hills were shaken.

Every city shall flee from the sound of the horsemen and bowmen. They shall go into thickets and climb up among the rocks. All the city is abandoned, and not a man shall live in them.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do? Though you dress with crimson, though you put on ornaments of gold, though you make your eyes large with paint, you shall make yourself beautiful in vain; your lovers will despise you; they will seek your life.

And though they say, As Jehovah lives; surely they swear falsely.

O Jehovah, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

So I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they do not know the way of Jehovah, nor the judgment of their God.

I will go up for myself to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of Jehovah and the judgment of their God. But these have broken the yoke together and have torn off the bonds!

Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

They were like lusty, well-fed stallions in the morning; every one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

Go up on her vine-rows and destroy; but do not make a full end; take away her branches, for they are not Jehovah's.

They have lied against Jehovah and said, It is not He; neither shall evil come on us; nor shall we see sword nor famine.

Lo, I will bring a nation on you from afar, O house of Israel, says Jehovah. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say.

Their quiver is as an open grave; they are all mighty men.

And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees. One shall beat down your fortified cities with the sword, those in which you trust.

Do you not fear Me? says Jehovah. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

And they do not say in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives both the former and the latter rain in its season; He reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

They have become fat, they shine. Yes, they go past the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may get rich; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch tents on her all around; they shall feed each one in his hand.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine; turn back your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are not circumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

They have also healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush; therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

So says Jehovah, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the ram's horn. But they said, We will not listen.

Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil on this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My Words, nor to My Law, but have rejected it.

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, set in order like a man for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

They are all grievous revolters, walking in slanders; they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

Reprobate silver they call them, because Jehovah has rejected them.

Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.

Do they vex Me? says Jehovah. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

But they did not listen, nor bow their ear, but walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

Yet they did not listen to Me, nor bow down their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; you shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says Jehovah. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, in order to defile it.

They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart.

So, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet, until there is no place.

At that time, says Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of the heavens, whom they have loved and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth.

And you shall say to them, So says Jehovah; shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return?

Why has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a never-ending backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

I listened and heard, but they did not speak right; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turned in their own courses, as the horse rushes into the battle.

The wise are ashamed, they are terrified, and are captured. Lo, they have turned away from the Word of Jehovah; and what wisdom is in them?

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had done an abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush; therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his stallions. For they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those who live in it.

For, behold, I will send serpents and adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Jehovah.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, from a far country. Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign vanities?

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for traveling men, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies. But they are not mighty for the truth on the earth; for they go from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says Jehovah.

And everyone will deceive his neighbor and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says Jehovah.

I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains, and a mourning for the pastures of the wilderness; because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.

And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it,

but they have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.

I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, Think carefully, and call for the wailers, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come;

For a voice of weeping is heard out of Zion. How are we plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because they have thrown down our tents.

They adorn it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not wobble.

They are like a rounded post, and they cannot speak. They must surely be lifted, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them; for they cannot do evil nor good, for it is not in them.

But they are all at once foolish and animal-like; the tree is an example of vanities.

Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the goldsmith. Violet and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of skillful ones.

So you shall say to them, The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.

They are vanity, the work of delusion; in the time of their judgment they shall perish.

For so says Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the people of the land at this time, and will distress them, so that they may find Me.

My tabernacle is ravaged, and all my cords are broken; My sons went away from me, and they are not. There is none to stretch out My tabernacle any more, and to set up My curtains.

For the pastors have become stupid, and have not sought Jehovah, therefore they shall not be blessed, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

Pour out Your fury on the nations who do not know You, and on the families who do not call on Your name; for they have eaten up Jacob and have devoured him, and have destroyed him, and have made his dwelling desolate.

Yet they did not obey nor bow down their ear, but walked each one in the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I will bring on them all the Words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did not do them.

They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My Words. And they went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.

So Jehovah says this: Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to Me, I will not listen to them.

Then shall the cities of Judah and the people of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense. But they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

And you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them. For I will not hear them in the time they cry to Me for their trouble.

And Jehovah of Hosts who planted you has spoken evil against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves to provoke Me to anger by offering incense to Baal.

But I was like a docile lamb being brought to the slaughter. And I did not know that they had plotted evils against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may be remembered no more.