"How the faithful city has become a whore, she who used to be filled with justice! Righteousness used to reside within her, but now only murderers live there.

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

"The daughter of Zion is left abandoned, like a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, or like a city under siege.

Then he will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel he'll also be a stone with which someone strikes himself, a rock one stumbles over, a trap and a snare to those who live in Jerusalem.

For you have been a stronghold for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat for the blistering attack from the ruthless is like a rainstorm beating against a wall,

A thousand will flee at the threat of one; and run away, pursued by five, until you are left like a flagpole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill."

The carpenter measures it with a line; he traces its shape with a stylus, then fashions it with planes and shapes it with a compass. He makes the idol like a human figure, with human beauty, to be at home in a shrine.

"I will heartily rejoice in the LORD, my soul will delight in my God; for he has wrapped me in garments of salvation; he has arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, just like a bridegroom, like a priest with a garland, and like a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

"And there will no longer be in it a young boy who lives only a few days, or an old person who does not live out his days; for one who dies at a hundred years will be thought a mere youth, and one who falls short of a hundred years will be considered accursed.

"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

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.