How has a faithful city become like a whore? Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

"Take a harp; walk around the city, you forgotten whore! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, and perhaps you'll be remembered."

But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.

And a wolf shall {stay} with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie down with a kid, and a calf and a lion and a fatling together {as a small boy leads} them.

For thou have been a stronghold to a poor man, a stronghold to a needy man in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the oppressors is as a storm against the wall.

For You have made a city into a heap [of trash],
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of foreigners is no longer a city,
It will never be rebuilt.

And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And the daughter of Zion is left, as a booth in a vineyard, as a night-lodge in a cucumber-garden, as a besieged city.

And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the storm; as brooks of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet fragrance there shall be a stench; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; and a burning scar instead of beauty.

Is such the fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul, that he should bow down his head as a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah?

The carpenter stretcheth out a line; he marketh it out with a pencil; he shapeth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compasses, and shapeth it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not be in haste.

They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor a profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound.

At that time a gift will be brought to Yahweh of Hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts.

A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill.

He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things;

A voice of a multitude in the mountains, A likeness of a numerous people, A voice of noise from the kingdoms of nations who are gathered, Jehovah of Hosts inspecting a host of battle!

Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

Against a polluted nation will I send him, and upon a people of my outpouring will I command him to spoil a spoil and to plunder a plunder, and to set them a treading down as the clay of the streets.

Then will Yahweh cause to be heard - the resounding of his voice And the bringing down of his arm, shall be seen, In a rage of anger, And with the flame of a devouring fire, - A burst and a downpour, and a hailstone!

All the stars in the sky will fade away, the sky will roll up like a scroll; all its stars will wither, like a leaf withers and falls from a vine or a fig withers and falls from a tree.

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough to scoop a hot coal from a fire or to skim off water from a cistern."

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; I will be overjoyed because of my God. For he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would; I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry.

There shall be thenceforward, no more, A suckling of a few days, or an elder Who filleth not up his days, - But, a youth a hundred years old, may die, Yea a sinner a hundred years old, shall he accursed,

And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of an ass, and a chariot of a camel. And let him listen, very attentively.

Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who ever sees such things? Can a country be born in a single day, or can a nation be brought forth in a single moment? Yet no sooner was Zion in labor than she delivered her children.

Then it becomes fuel for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also kindles a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god [from the same wood] and worships it. He makes it into a carved idol [with his own hands] and falls down and worships it!

Look! I made him a witness to [the] peoples, a leader and a commander [for the] peoples.

And Yahweh will lead you continually, and satisfy your soul in a barren land, and he will strengthen your bones, and you shall be like a well-watered garden, and like a spring of water whose water does not fail.

to {give} for those in mourning in Zion, to give them a head wrap instead of ashes, [the] oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. And {they will be called} oaks of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, to show his glory.

And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory'shall be spread a covering.

And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.

Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Rather, there Yahweh [will be] mighty for us, a place of rivers [and] {broad streams}, a galley ship with oars cannot go in it, and a mighty ship cannot pass through it.

{Yahweh has a sword}; it is full [of] blood. It is covered with fat, with [the] blood of lambs and goats, with [the] fat of [the] kidneys of rams, for {Yahweh has a sacrifice} in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

until {I come} and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards,

Thus says Yahweh: "I have answered you in a time of favor, and helped you on a day of salvation, and watched over you, and given you as a covenant of [the] people, to raise up [the] land, to give [the] desolate hereditary property as an inheritance,

that sendest ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, swift messengers, to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth; to a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

and it shall be for a sign and for a witness to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto Jehovah because of the oppressors, and he will send them a saviour and defender, who shall deliver them.

And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house:

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, as a storm of hail and a destroying tempest; as a storm of mighty waters overflowing, shall he cast down to the earth with might.

For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but dill is beaten out with a staff, and cummin with a rod.

{Your holy cities} have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and pervert the judgment of the righteous by futility.

Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and record it in a book, that it may be for the time to come, as a witness for ever,

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a feast is sanctified; and joy of heart, as of one who goeth with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.

Thou shalt no more see the fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst comprehend, of a stammering tongue that cannot be understood.

Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter; I mourned as a dove; mine eyes failed with looking upward: Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

He that is impoverished, so that he hath no offering, chooseth a tree that doth not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilled workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and hidden in prison-houses; they are become a prey, and none delivereth, a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

When he heweth him down cedars, he taketh also a holm-oak and a terebinth he chooseth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth a pine, and the rain maketh it grow.

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.

What doest thou here? and whom has thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out here a sepulchre? hewing him out a sepulchre on high, graving a habitation for himself in the rock!