Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned [with] fire; [As for] your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, like devastation [by] foreigners.

And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a city that is besieged.

If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors, we would have been as few as Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.

Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become to me like burden, I am not able to bear [them].

"Come now, and let us argue," says Yahweh. "Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow; even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

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

And I will turn my hand against you; I will purify your dross like lye, and I will remove all [of] your tin.

For you shall be like an oak withering its leaves, and like a garden where there is no water for her.

And the strong [man] shall become like tinder, and his work like a spark. And both of them shall burn together, and there is not one to quench [them]."

For you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob, because they are full from [the] east, and [of] soothsayers like the Philistines, and {they make alliances} with the offspring of foreigners.

For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts [is] removing {every source of support} from Jerusalem and from Judah: all of [the] supplies of bread and all of [the] supplies of water,

The look on their faces testifies against them and they declare their sin like Sodom; they do not hide [it]. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil to themselves.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the man of Judah [is] the plantation of his delight. [And] he waited for justice, but look! Bloodshed! For righteousness, but look! A cry of distress!

And [there] will be lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine [at] their feasts, but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh, and they do not see the work of his hands.

Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and dry grass sinks down [in the] flame, so their root will become like [the] stench, and their blossom will go up like [the] dust. For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts, and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.

Therefore {Yahweh's wrath was kindled} against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in [the] middle of [the] streets.

And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar, and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth. And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

Whose arrows are sharp, and all of his bows are bent. The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint, and his wheels like the storm wind.

His roaring [is] like the lion, and he roars like young lions. And he growls and seizes his prey, and he carries [it] off, and not one can rescue [it].

And he will roar over him on that day like [the] roaring of [the] sea, and [if] one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress! And [the] light grows dark with its clouds.

And he touched my mouth, and he said, "Look! This has touched your lips and has removed your guilt, and your sin is annulled."

Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

And {even if only a tenth part remain}, {again she will be destroyed} like terebinth or like [an] oak, which although felled, a tree stump [remains] in them. [The] seed of holiness [will be] her tree stump."

When it was reported to the house of David, saying "Aram stands by Ephraim," his heart and the heart of his people shook like the shaking of the trees of [the] forest because of [the] wind.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! the virgin [is] with child and she is about to give birth [to] a son, and she shall call his name 'God with us.'

And [as for] all of the hills that they hoed with the hoe, you will not go there, [for] fear of briers and thornbushes. And it will become like pastureland [for] cattle and overtrodden land [for] sheep.

therefore look! The Lord [is] bringing up the waters of the great and mighty river against them, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will rise above all his channels, and he will flow over all his banks.

And he will become like a sanctuary and a stumbling-stone, and like a stumbling-rock for the two houses of Israel, like a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Look! I and the children whom Yahweh has given to me [are] like signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, the one who dwells on the mountain of Zion.

for teaching and for testimony?" {surely they [who] speak like this have no dawn}.

or look to [the] earth. But look! Distress and darkness, [the] gloom of affliction! And [it will be] thrust [into] darkness!

For wickedness burned like fire; it consumed brier and thorn. And it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upward [in] a column of smoke.

The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and the people became like fire fuel. {People had no compassion toward each other}.

I send him against a godless nation, and I command him against the people of my wrath, to capture spoil and to carry off plunder, and to make them a trampling place, like [the] clay of [the] streets.

[Is] not Calno like Carchemish? [Is] not Hamath like Arpad? [Is] not Samaria like Damascus?

For he says, "I have done [it] by the strength of my hand and by my wisdom, for I have understanding, and I have removed [the] boundaries of peoples, and I have plundered their stores, and like a bull I have brought down {the inhabitants}.

And my hand has found, like nest, the wealth of the peoples, and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth. And [there] was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp."

Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors, and a burning like [the] burning of fire will burn under his glory.

And the light of Israel will become like a fire, and his holy one like a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard {completely}, and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.

For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of it will return. Annihilation [is] determined, overflowing [with] righteousness.

Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off [the] branches with great power, and {the towering trees} will be felled, and the {tall trees} will be brought low.

And a cow and a bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together. And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle.

Look! God [is] my salvation; I will trust, and I will not be afraid, for my strength and might [is] Yah, Yahweh; and he has become salvation for me."

Wail, for the day of Yahweh [is] near; it will come like destruction from Shaddai!

and they will be dismayed. Pangs and labor pains will seize [them]; they will tremble like a woman giving birth. {They will stare at one another}, {their faces flushing}.

Look! The day of Yahweh [is] coming, cruel and wrath and [the] burning [of] anger, to make the earth a desolation, and he will destroy its sinners from it.

And this shall happen: like a hunted gazelle or sheep {with none to gather them}, they will each turn to his [own] people, and they will each flee to his [own] land.

Look! I [am] stirring the Medes up against them, who do not value silver and do not delight in gold.

And [their] bows will shatter young men. And they will not show mercy on [the] fruit of [the] womb; their eyes will not look compassionately on children.

And Babylon, [the] glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like {when God overthrew} Sodom and Gomorrah.

All of them will respond and say to you, 'You yourself also were made weak like us! You have become the same as us!'

Your pride is brought down [to] Sheol, [and] the sound of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you like a bed, and your covering is worms.

I will ascend to [the] high places of [the] clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.'

Those who see you will stare at you, they will look closely at you: '[Is] this the man who made the earth tremble, who caused kingdoms to shake,

who made [the] world like the desert and destroyed its cities, [who] would not let his prisoners go home?'

But [as for] you, you are thrown away from your grave, like an abhorrent shoot, clothed with [the] slain, those pierced [by the] sword, those who go down to [the] stones of [the] pit, like a corpse that is trodden down.

And this shall be: like a bird fleeing [from] a thrust away nest shall be the daughters of Moab [at the] fords of Arnon.

"Bring counsel, make a decision; make your shade like the night in the middle of noonday. Hide [the] outcasts; you must not betray the fugitive.

Therefore my {heart moans} like harp for Moab and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

But now Yahweh speaks, saying, "In three years, like [the] years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and [the] remnant [will be] a few, small, not strong.

An oracle of Damascus: "Look! Damascus [will] cease being a city and will become a heap of ruins.

And [the] fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and [the] kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.

And it shall be as {when a reaper gathers} standing grain and he reaps grain [with] his arm, and it shall be like one who gathers ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim.

On that day, mankind will look to its maker, and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel;

it will not look to the altars, the work of its hands, and it will not see what its fingers made and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars.

On that day, {its fortified cities} will be like the {abandonment of the wooded place and the summit}, which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.

Ah! [The] noise of many peoples, they make a noise like [the] noise of [the] seas! And [the] roar of nations, they roar like [the] roar of mighty waters!

[The] nations roar like [the] roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of [the] mountains before [the] wind and like tumbleweed before [the] storm.

At [the] time of evening, and look, terror! Before morning he is no more. This [is] the fate of those who plunder us and [the] lot of those who plunder us.

All [you] inhabitants of [the] world and dwellers of [the] earth, {when a signal is raised on the} mountains, you must look, and {when a trumpet is blown}, you must listen!

For Yahweh said this to me: "I will be quiet, and I will look from my dwelling place like {clear heat because of light}, like a cloud of dew in [the] heat of harvest."

An oracle of Egypt: Look! Yahweh [is] riding on a swift cloud and [is] coming [to] Egypt. And the idols of Egypt will tremble in front of him, and the heart of Egypt melts in his inner parts.

On that day, Egypt will be like women, and will tremble and be afraid before the waving hand of Yahweh of hosts that he [is] waving against it.

And [the] inhabitant [of] the coastland will say this on that day: 'Look! This [is] our hope [to] whom we fled for help, to be delivered {from} the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?'"

Therefore my loins are filled [with] anguish; pangs have seized me, like [the] pangs of a woman giving birth. I am {too bent to hear}, I am {too dismayed to see}.

And look [at] this! A man's a chariot [is] coming, a pair of horsemen!" Then he responded and said, "It has fallen! Babylon has fallen! And all the images of her gods are smashed on the ground!"

For the Lord said this to me: "{In one more year}, like [the] years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.

Therefore I said, "Look away from me, let me {weep bitterly}; you must not insist on comforting me for the destruction of the daughter of my people."

And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool, but you did not look to its maker, and you did not see {the one who created it long ago}.

But look! Joy and gladness, the killing of oxen and the slaughtering of sheep, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

Look! Yahweh [is] about to {really hurl} you, man! And he [is] about to grasp you firmly;

he will wind a winding tightly around you like ball, to a {wide land}. There you shall die, and there the chariots of your splendor [will be], disgrace to your master's house!

and I will clothe him [with] your tunic, and I will bind your sash firmly about him, and I will put your authority into his hand, and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

And I will drive him in [like] a peg into a secure place, and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.

Cross over your [own] land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

Look [at] the land of the Chaldeans! {This people no longer exists. Assyria destined} it for wild animals. They erected its siege towers; they demolished its citadel fortresses. It made her like a ruin.

And this will happen on that day: And Tyre [will] be forgotten seventy years, like the days of one king. At [the] end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:

Look! Yahweh [is] about to lay the earth waste and [is] about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants.

For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth, among the nations, like [the] beating of an olive tree, like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.

[The] earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard, and it sways like hut, and its transgression is heavy upon it, and it falls and does not rise again.

And they will be gathered [in] a gathering, [like] a prisoner {in} a pit. And they will be shut {in} a prison and be punished {after} many days.

For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in his distress, a shelter from [the] rainstorm, a shade from [the] heat. For [the] breath of [the] ruthless [was] like a rainstorm against a wall,

[the] noise of foreigners like heat in a dry land. You subdued [the] heat with [the] shade of a cloud; [the] song of [the] ruthless was silenced.

And one will say, on that day, "Look! This [is] our God! We have waited for him and he saved us! This [is] Yahweh; we waited for him! Let us be glad, and let us rejoice in his salvation."

On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "{We have a strong city}; he sets up victory [like] walls and ramparts!

Like pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes; she cries in her labor pains. So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.

For look! Yahweh [is] about to come out from his place to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth against him, and the earth will disclose her blood and will no longer cover her slain.

Therefore by this he will make atonement [for] the guilt of Jacob, and this [will be] all of [the] fruit [of] the removal of his sin: {when he makes} all [the] stones of [the] altar like crushed stones of chalk, no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.

For [the] fortified city [is] solitary, a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; [the] calf grazes there, lies down there and destroys its branches.