Listen, you heavens, and let the earth pay attention, because the LORD has spoken: "I reared children and brought them to adulthood, but then they rebelled against me.

"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

"Your country lies desolate; your cities have been incinerated. Before your very eyes, foreigners are devouring your land they've brought devastation on it, while the land is overthrown by foreigners.

As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

"Please come, and let's reason together," implores the LORD. "Even though your sins are like scarlet, they'll be white like snow. Though they're like crimson, they'll become like wool.

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. All of them are lovers of bribes and are runners after gifts. They don't bring justice to orphans, and the widow's case never comes up for review in their court."

They'll be ashamed of the oak trees that you desired; and you'll blush because of the gardens that you have chosen.

Many groups of people will come, commenting, "Come! Let's go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let's walk in his paths." "Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations, and will render verdicts for the benefit of many. "They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations will not raise swords against nations, and they will not learn warfare anymore.

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with practices learned from the East and they are fortune-tellers like the Philistines. They cut deals with foreigners.

Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

"For the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has reserved a time to oppose all who are proud and haughty, and the self-exalting they will be humbled.

"They will enter caverns in the rocks and holes in the ground to escape the presence of the terror of the LORD, to escape the splendor of his majesty when he arises to terrify the earth.

They will enter caverns in the rocks and clefts in the cliffs, to escape the terror of the LORD and to escape the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to terrorize the earth.

"Stop trusting in human beings, whose life breath is in their nostrils, for what are they really worth?"

"For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because what they say and do opposes the LORD; they keep defying him.

"The expressions on their faces give them away. They parade their sin around like Sodom; they don't even try to hide it. How horrible it will be for them, because they have brought disaster on themselves!"

"Tell the righteous that things will go well, because they will enjoy the fruit of their actions."

"How terrible it will be for the wicked! Disaster is headed their way, because what they did with their hand will be repaid to them.

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders are misleading you they're giving you confusing directions."

The LORD also says: "Because Zion's women are so haughty, and walk with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, prancing along as they walk, and making tinkling noises with their ankle bracelets,

I'll make it a wasteland, and it won't be pruned or cultivated. Instead, briers and thorns will grow up. I'll also issue commands to the clouds, that they drop no rain upon it."

They have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, as well as wine at their festivals, but they don't respect what the LORD is doing, nor do they consider his actions.

Therefore my people go into exile because they lack understanding; my honored men go hungry, and the crowd is parched with thirst.

Therefore, as flames of fire devour straw, as dry grass collapses in flames, so their root will be rotten, and their blossom will blow away like dust, because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The LORD will signal for nations far away, whistling for them to come from the ends of the earth. Look how quickly and how swiftly they come!

With a roar like a lion, they snarl, and like young lions, they growl; they seize their prey and then carry it off, with no one to rescue.

They will roar over it at that time, like the sea waves roar. If one surveys the land, watch out! There's darkness and distress; even the daylight is darkened by its clouds.

They kept on calling to each other: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!"

Dull the mind of this people, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes. By doing so, they won't see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed."

During the reign of Jotham's son Ahaz, Uzziah's grandson, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem and waged war against it, but they could not mount an attack against it.

They will all come and settle in the steep ravines, in the rocky crevices, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the pastures.

and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will have cheese to eat, since whoever remains in the land will be eating cheese and honey.

"Because this people have rejected the gently-flowing waters of Shiloah, and because they keep rejoicing in Rezin and Remaliah's son,

"Don't call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy, and don't fear what they fear, or live in terror.

Many will stumble on them; They'll fall and be broken; They'll be snared and captured.

"So when they advise you, "Ask the mediums your questions, and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,' shouldn't a people instead be consulting their God and not the dead on behalf of those who are living

for instruction and for testimony? Surely they are speaking like this because the truth hasn't dawned on them.

"They'll pass through the land, while greatly distressed and hungry. When they are hungry, they'll become enraged, and they'll curse their king and their god. They'll turn their faces upwards,

or they'll look toward the earth, but they'll see only distress and darkness, the gloom that comes from anguish, and then they'll be thrown into total darkness."

You have increased the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice in your presence as they rejoice at the harvest, as they are glad when they're dividing the spoils of war.

Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west and they devour Israel with open mouths! "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

"But the people have not returned to rely on him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"For wickedness has burned like a blaze that consumes briers and thorns; it sets thickets of the forest on fire, and skyward they swirl in a column of smoke.

They cut meat on the right, but they're still hungry, and they devour also on the left, but they're not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own children.

Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

"How terrible it will be for the one who enacts unjust decrees, for those who write oppressive laws that they have prescribed

to deprive the needy of justice and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may become their spoil and so that they may plunder orphans!

"Because this is what he is saying: "My commanders are all kings, are they not?

They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

But they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west, and they will plunder the people to the east. They'll lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

And there will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people out of Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

They're coming from a faraway land, from the distant horizon the LORD and the weapons of his anger to destroy the entire land."

They will be terrified; pain and anguish will seize them; they'll writhe like a woman in labor. They'll look aghast at one another; and their faces will be ablaze with fear.

They will be like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.

Their bows will dash the young men to pieces; they'll show no pity on those not yet born, and their eyes will not spare children.

Many nations will take them and bring them to their land and their own place. The house of Israel will put those nations to conscripted labor in the LORD's land. They will take captive those who were their captors, and will rule continually over those who oppressed them.

At the time, when the LORD gives you rest from your suffering, turmoil, and the cruel bondage which they forced you to serve,

"Those who see you will stare at you. They will wonder about you: "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who made kingdoms quake,

Prepare a massacre for his sons because of the guilt of their forefathers! They are not to rise and inherit the earth, and cover the surface of the world with cities."

How will they answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has founded Zion, and in it the afflicted among his people will find refuge."

In its streets they wear sackcloth; on its rooftops and in its squares everyone wails and falls down weeping.

My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent to Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction.

Therefore the wealth they have acquired and what they have stored up they carry them away over the Arab Wadi.

The cities of Oraru will be deserted they will be devoted to herds that will lay at rest, and terrorism will be no more.

They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars.

"At that time, their fortified cities that they abandoned because of the Israelis will be like desolate places of the forests and hilltops there will be desolation.

"How terrible it will be for many nations, who rage like the roaring sea! Oh, how the uproar of nations is like the sound of rushing, mighty water How they roar!

The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm.

When the evening arrives, watch out sudden terror! By morning they will be there no longer! So it will be for those who plunder us and what will happen to those who rob us."

And they will all be left for birds of prey that live on the mountains and for wild animals. Birds of prey will pass the summer feeding on them, and all the wild animals will pass the winter feeding on them.

The spirits of the Egyptians within them will be drained of courage, and I will bring their plans to nothing. They will consult idols and spirits of the dead, and mediums and spiritists.

And the bulrushes along the Nile, along the mouth of the Nile, will wither away. All the sown fields of the Nile will become parched, and they will be blown away; there will be nothing left.

The LORD has mixed within them a spirit of confusion; so they make Egypt stagger in all that it does, like a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

At that time, the Egyptians will be like women they will shudder and be afraid before the uplifted hand of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, when he brandishes his hand against her.

It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies in the land of Egypt; when they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior, and he will come down and rescue them.

At that time, they will worship with sacrifices and offerings, and they will make vows to the LORD and carry them out. The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague, striking but then healing. Then they will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

At that time, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will come into Egypt, and the Egyptians into Assyria, and they will worship with the Assyrians.

At that time, Israel will be in a triple alliance with Egypt and Assyria; they will be a blessing in the midst of the earth.

Then they will be dismayed and put to shame because of Cush, their hope, and Egypt, their jewel.

They set the tables; they spread the carpets; they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers! Oil the shields!"

Look! Here come riders, each man with a pair of horses!" They're shouting out the answer: "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and they have shattered all the images of her gods on the ground!

you who are full of commotion, you passionate city, you rollicking town? Your slain weren't killed by the sword, nor are they dead in battle.

All your leaders have fled together; she is captured without using bows. All of you who were caught were captured together, although they had fled while the enemy was still far away.

When the news reaches Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report about Tyre.

"Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is a people that no longer exist; Assyria destined her for desert creatures. They raised up her siege towers, they stripped her fortresses bare and turned her into a ruin.

Nevertheless, her profits and her earnings will be dedicated to the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded but her profits will go to those who live in the LORD's presence, for abundant food and choice clothing.

The earth lies defiled beneath its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

No longer do they drink wine accompanied by singing; even beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.

"They raise their voices; they shout for joy; from the west they shout aloud over the LORD's majesty.

They will be herded together into the Pit; they will be shut up in prison, and after many days they will be punished.

They will spread out their hands in the thick of it, just as swimmers spread out their hands to swim, but the LORD will bring down their pride, together with the cleverness of their hands.

If favor is shown to the wicked, they don't learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they act perversely and do not perceive the majesty of the LORD.

"LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. And let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame yes, let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them!

LORD, they came to you in distress; they poured out their secret prayer when your chastenings were afflicting them.

Has the LORD struck them down, just as he struck down those who struck them? Or have they been killed, just as their killers were killed?

For the fortified city stands desolate, a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert; calves graze there, and there they lie down and strip bare its branches.

When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women come and kindle fires with them, since this is a people who show no consideration. That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion; the One who created them shows them no mercy.

These people also stagger from wine and reel from strong drink. Priests and prophets stagger from strong drink; they're drunk from wine; they reel from strong drink, waver when seeing visions, and stumble when rendering decisions.

to whom he said, "This is the resting place, so give rest to the weary"' and, "This is the place of repose" - but they would not listen.