Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.

O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.

Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.

If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours.

Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.

For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.

For you, O Lord, have given up your people, the family of Jacob, because they are full of the evil ways of the east, and make use of secret arts like the Philistines, and are friends with the children of strange countries.

Their land is full of images; they give worship to the work of their hands, even to that which their fingers have made.

Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a breath, for he is of no value.

And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them.

When one man puts his hand on another in his father's house, and says, You have clothing, be our ruler and be responsible for us in our sad condition:

Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the fruit of his ways.

As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.

The Lord comes to be the judge of their responsible men and of their rulers: it is you who have made waste the vine-garden, and in your houses is the property of the poor which you have taken by force.

And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion, and of those who have been kept from destruction in Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem:

Is there anything which might have been done for my vine-garden which I have not done? why then, when I was hoping for the best grapes did it give me common grapes?

For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.

And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your lips have been touched with this; and your evil is taken away, and you are made clean from sin.

Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer, Till the towns are waste and unpeopled, and the houses have no men, and the land becomes completely waste,

And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not have faith, your kingdom will be broken.

For before the child is old enough to make a decision between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are now fearing will have become waste.

And they will give so much milk that he will be able to have butter for his food: for butter and honey will be the food of all who are still living in the land.

Because this people will have nothing to do with the softly-flowing waters of Shiloah, and have fear of Rezin and Remaliah's son;

Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:

And when they say to you, Make request for us to those who have control of spirits, and to those wise in secret arts, who make hollow bird-like sounds; is it not right for a people to make request to their gods, to make request for the living to the dead?

The people who went in the dark have seen a great light, and for those who were living in the land of the deepest night, the light is shining.

You have made them very glad, increasing their joy. They are glad before you as men are glad in the time of getting in the grain, or when they make division of the goods taken in war.

For by your hand the yoke on his neck and the rod on his back, even the rod of his cruel master, have been broken, as in the day of Midian.

And all the people will have experience of it, even Ephraim and the men of Samaria, who say in the pride of their uplifted hearts,

The bricks have come down, but we will put up buildings of cut stone in their place: the sycamores are cut down, but they will be changed to cedars.

Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who have come against Israel with open mouths. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may have the property of widows, and get under their power those who have no father.

So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do to Jerusalem and her images.

For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them;

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.

And it will be in that day that the rest of Israel, and those of Jacob who have come safely through these troubles, will no longer go for help to him whose rod was on their back, but their faith will be in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, says, O my people living in Zion, have no fear of the Assyrian, even if his rod comes on your back, and his stick is lifted up as in Egypt.

They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our resting-place tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear; Gibeah of Saul has gone in flight.

And the envy of Ephraim will be gone, and those who make trouble for Judah will come to an end: Ephraim will have no more envy of Judah, and there will be an end of Judah's hate for Ephraim.

See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the Lord, without fear: for the Lord Jah is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.

I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to give effect to my wrath.

Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put through him, and everyone who goes in flight will be put to the sword.

See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold.

In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body.

People will never be living in it again, and it will have no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not make it a resting-place for their flocks.

But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes there; and the houses will be full of crying jackals, and ostriches will have their place there, and evil spirits will be dancing there.

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will again make Israel his special people, and will put them in their land; and the man from a strange country will take his place among them and be joined to the family of Jacob.

The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of the dead are awake before you, even the strong ones of the earth; all the kings of the world have got up from their seats.

They all make answer and say to you, Have you become feeble like us? have you been made even as we are?

But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed under foot.

As for your fathers, you will not be united with them in their resting-place, because you have been the cause of destruction to your land, and of death to your people; the seed of the evil-doer will have no place in the memory of man.

And the poorest of the land will have food, and those in need will be given a safe resting-place: but your seed will come to an end for need of food, and the rest of you will be put to the sword.

For this cause they will take away their wealth, and the stores they have got together, over the stream of the water-plants.

For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds, like a place from which the young birds have gone in flight, at the ways across the Arnon.

Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a resting-place with you; be a cover to them from him who is making waste their land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and wasting has come to an end, and those who take pleasure in crushing the poor are gone from the land.

We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride and passion: his high words about himself are false.

And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes prayer in the house of his god, it will have no effect.

The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.

He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.

For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god;

And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise in secret arts.

And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to nothing.

The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put fishing-lines into the Nile will be full of grief, and those whose nets are stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in their hearts.

The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early kings?

The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of Noph are tricked, the heads of her tribes are the cause of Egypt's wandering out of the way.

And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was their glory.

And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation?

A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow.

For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see.

O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel.

The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again.

The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops?

You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war.

All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away.

For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people.

Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here?

And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position.

Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins

And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed virgin daughter of Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there you will have no rest.

And it will be after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will have mercy on Tyre, and she will go back to her trade, acting as a loose woman with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

And it will be the same for the people as for the priest; for the servant as for his master; and for the woman-servant as for her owner; the same for the one offering goods for a price as for him who takes them; the same for him who gives money at interest and for him who takes it; the same for him who lets others have the use of his property as for those who make use of it.

The earth has been made unclean by those living in it; because the laws have not been kept by them, the orders have been changed, and the eternal agreement has been broken.

And they will be got together, like prisoners in the prison-house; and after a long time they will have their punishment.

O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I will give honour to your name; for you have done great acts of power; your purposes in the past have been made true and certain in effect.

For you have made a town a waste place: a strong town a mass of broken walls; the tower of the men of pride has come to an end; it will never be put up again.

For you have been a strong place for the poor and the crushed in their trouble, a safe place from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the wrath of the cruel ones is like a winter storm.

And in that day it will be said, See, this is our God; we have been waiting for him, and he will be our saviour: this is the Lord in whom is our hope; we will be glad and have delight in his salvation.

In that day will this song be made in the land of Judah: We have a strong town; he will make salvation our walls and towers.

We have been waiting for you, O Lord; the desire of our soul is for the memory of your name.

O Lord, our God, other lords than you have had rule over us; but in you only is our salvation, and no other name will we take on our lips.

The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction on them, so that the memory of them is dead.

You have made the nation great, O Lord, you have made it great; glory is yours: you have made wide the limits of the land.

Lord, in trouble our eyes have been turned to you, we sent up a prayer when your punishment was on us.

As a woman with child, whose time is near, is troubled, crying out in her pain; so have we been before you, O Lord.

We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have given birth to wind; no salvation has come to the earth through us, and no children have come into the world.