"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.

Your men will die violently, while your forces fall in battle

Humanity is brought low, and each one is humbled, while the eyes of the self-exalting are brought low.

"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,

In just a little while, my fury will come to an end, and my anger then will be directed to their destruction.

Therefore my body is racked with pain; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am so upset that I cannot hear; I am so frightened that I cannot see while I'm reeling around.

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.

Elam takes up the quiver with chariots and cavalry, while Kir unsheathes the shield.

Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

"In a very little while, will not Lebanon be turned into a garden of fruit, and the garden of fruit seem like a forest?

But if you all say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" - isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, while he kept on telling Judah and Jerusalem, "You are to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem'?

Later, while he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with swords and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Sennacherib's son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

"Listen to me, you coastlands! Pay attention, you people from far away! The LORD called me from the womb; while I was still in my mother's body, he pronounced my name.

Indeed, your ruins, your desolate places, and your devastated land will now be too crowded for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.

"Also the righteous are perishing, but no one takes it to heart; devout people are taken away, while no one understands that the righteous person is taken away from calamity.

"Whom did you so dread and while you feared me that you lied, and you did not remember me, and did not lay to heart these things? Haven't I remained silent for a long time, and still you don't fear me?"

Your holy people took possession for a little while, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.

Before they call, I will answer, while they are still speaking, I'll hear.