Pour out thy wrath upon the nations which knew thee not, and upon the families that called not upon thy name: for they ate up Jacob and consumed him, and they will finish him, and they made desolate his dwelling.

Tell them that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, 'Anyone who does not keep the terms of the covenant will be under a curse.

which I commanded your ancestors in the day of my bringing them from the land of Egypt, from the furnace of iron, {saying}, 'Listen to my voice and do according to all that I command you, {so will you be my people, and I will be your God}.'

Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey." That is the very land that you still live in today.'" And I responded, "Amen! Let it be so, Lord!"

And Jehovah will say to me, Call all these words in the cities Of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.

Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of his evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.

And Jehovah will say to me, A conspiracy was found in the men of Judah, and in the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, "I [am] about to bring on them disaster from which they will not be able to escape. Though they cry out to me, yet I will not listen to them.

Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods [to] whom they [are] making smoke offerings, but they will certainly not save them in the time of their trouble.

Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I [will] not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble.

About Judah. What have you to do in my house? is it your thought that oaths and holy flesh will get you out of your trouble? will you make yourself safe in this way?

Yahweh called your name, 'A leafy olive tree, {beautiful with fine fruit}.' With the sound of a great storm he will set fire to it, and its branches will be good for nothing.

For though I, the Lord who rules over all, planted you in the land, I now decree that disaster will come on you because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal."

And I [was] like a gentle ram-lamb that is brought to slaughter, and I did not know that they planned plans against me, [saying], "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from [the] land of [the] living, so that his name will no longer be remembered."

Therefore I will beseech thee now, O LORD of Hosts, thou righteous judge, thou that tryest the reins and the hearts: let me see the avenged of them, for unto thee have I committed my cause.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the people of Anathoth who seek your life, {saying}, "You shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh {or} you will die by our hand."

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am about to] punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by the famine.

And a remnant will not be [left] for them, for I will bring disaster to the people of Anathoth, the year of their punishment."

You [will be] in the right, Yahweh, when I complain to you. Even so, let me speak [my] claims with you. Why does [the] way of [the] wicked succeed? All those who deal treacherously with treachery are at ease.

But you, Lord, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed!

{How long} will the land mourn, and the vegetation of every field dry up, because of the wickedness of those who live in it? [The] animals and [the] birds are swept away, because they have said, "He does not see our future."

"If you run with foot soldiers and they have made you weary, then how will you compete with horses? If you have fallen in {a peaceful land}, then how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

For also thy brethren and the house of thy father, they also acted faithlessly with thee; they also called after thee a fulness: thou shalt not believe in them for they will speak to thee good things.

"I will abandon my nation. I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies.

The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them.

Is My inheritance like a hyena to Me?
Are birds of prey circling her?
Go, gather all the wild animals;
bring them to devour her.

Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland.

They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed.

A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the desert. For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe.

They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit. And they will be ashamed of your produce, because of {the burning anger} of Yahweh."

Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance [to] my people Israel: "Look, I [am] about to drive them out from their land, and the house of Judah I will drive out from among them.

{And then} after my driving them out, I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance, and each one to his land.

{And then}, if they diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, '{as Yahweh lives},' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will live in the midst of my people.

But if they do not listen, then {I will completely uproot and destroy that nation}." {declares} Yahweh.

And the word of Jehovah will be to me the second time, saying,

And it will be from the end of many days, and Jehovah will say to me, Rising, go to Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle which I commanded thee to hide it there.

And I shall go to Euphrates, and dig, and take the girdle from the place which I hid it there: and behold, the girdle was corrupted, it will not profit for anything.

And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying,

"Thus says Yahweh: 'So I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

These evil people who say they will not give ear to my words, who go on in the pride of their hearts and have become servants and worshippers of other gods, will become like this band which is of no use for anything.

For as the girdle will adhere to the loins of a man, so did I cause to adhere to me all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah, says Jehovah: to be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for glory: and they heard not

"Therefore, you shall say to them this word, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Every jar must be filled with wine." ' And they will say to you, 'Do we not certainly know that every jar should be filled with wine?'

Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

And I will smash them, each one against his brother, and the fathers and the sons together," {declares} Yahweh. "I will not have compassion, and I will not take pity, and I will not show compassion from destroying them." '"

Give glory to Yahweh your God {before} he brings darkness, and {before} your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. And you will hope for light, but he makes it as gloom, he makes [it] as thick darkness.

But if you will not listen to it, my inner self will weep in secret places, because of {the presence of} [your] pride. And my eyes will weep bitterly, and they will melt [in] tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.

The Lord told me, "Tell the king and the queen mother, 'Surrender your thrones, for your glorious crowns will be removed from your heads.

The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. No one will be able to go in or out of them. All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.'"

What will you say when he sets over you-- and you have taught them--allies as head over you? Will not labor pains take hold of you, like a woman giving birth?

You will probably ask yourself, 'Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?' It is because you have sinned so much.

Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] you also will be able to do good, [who] are accustomed to doing evil.

And I will scatter them like stubble scattered by [the] wind of [the] desert.

This thy lot and the portion of thy measure from me, says Jehovah; because thou didst forget me and thou wilt trust in falsehood.

So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face, and your shame will become visible.

Your adulteries, and your neighings, the shameful behavior of your fornications on [the] hills in the countryside, I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, Jerusalem! {How long will you continue to be unclean}?"

And wild asses stand on [the] barren heights, they gasp [for] breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation."

Thou hope of Israel, its Saviour in the time of trouble, why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a traveller that turneth aside to stay a night?

Why wilt thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.

Thus says Yahweh concerning this people: "They have loved so much to wander, they have not spared their feet. Therefore Yahweh is not favorable to them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."

And Jehovah will say to me, Thou shalt not pray for this people for good.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh, look, the prophets [are] saying to them, 'You will not see [the] sword, and famine will not be yours, but reliable peace I will give to you in this place.'"

And Jehovah will say to me, The prophets are prophesying a lie in my name: I sent them not, and I commanded them not, and I spake not to them: a vision of falsehood and a divination, and nought, and the deceit of their heart they are prophesying to you.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophecy in my name though I have not sent them, yet they [are] saying, "Sword and famine will not be in this land." "By the sword and by the famine those prophets will perish.

And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.

“You will say this word to them,
‘Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
With a sorely infected wound.

Thou wilt not despise us; for sake of thy name, thou wilt not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, thou wilt not break thy covenant with us.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for thee; for thou hast made all these things.

And Jehovah will say to me, If Moses shall stand, and Samuel, before my face, my soul not to this people: casting from my face they shall go forth.

And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go? then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food; and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away.

"And I will summon over them four types of calamity," {declares} Yahweh, "the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and to destroy.

And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

"For who will have compassion on you, Jerusalem, or who will show sympathy to you, or who will turn aside {to ask about your welfare}?

Thou hast cast me off, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward; and I have stretched out my hand against thee, and will destroy thee: I am become weary of repenting.

And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave of children and destroy my people: they have not returned from their ways.

Their widows will be more numerous before me than [the] sand of [the] seas. I have brought to them, against [the] mothers of young men, a destroyer at noon. I will suddenly drop on her anguish and horror.

She who gave birth to seven has withered away. She gasps her breath. Her sun {set} while still day. She has been put to shame and disgraced. And the remainder of them I will give to the sword {before} their enemies," {declares} Yahweh.

Yahweh said, "{Surely} I will set you free {to be good} for you, {surely} I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in a time of trouble, and in a time of distress.

Will iron break? iron from the north? and bronze?

I will give your wealth and your treasures as plunder without price, even because of all your sins, and throughout all your territories.

And I will make you serve your enemies in a land [that] you [do] not know, for a fire will kindle in my anger. Upon you it will be kindled."

Thou knewest, O Jehovah: remember me, and review me, and avenge for me from him pursuing me; not for being slow of thy wrath wilt thou take me away; know, I suffered reproach for thee.

Thy words were found, and eating them; and thy word will be to me for the gladness and for the joy of my heart: for thy name was called upon me, Jehovah the God of armies.

I sat not in the assembly of those mocking, and I will not exult; from the face of thy hand I sat alone, for thou didst fill me with anger.

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook , as waters that fail?

Therefore thus says Yahweh, "If you turn back, then I will take you back. You will stand {before me}. And if you utter [what is] precious and not [what is] worthless, you will be as my mouth. They will turn back to you, and you will not turn back to them.

And I will make you to this people a wall of fortified bronze, and they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I [am] with you, to save you, and to deliver you," {declares} Yahweh.

"And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from [the] hand of [the] tyrant."

For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers.

"They will die by diseases, they will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be as dung on the face of the earth. And they will perish by the sword and they will perish by the famine. And their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air, and for the wild animals of the earth."

Both the great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not mourn for them, and no one will cut himself with a blade, and no one will shave himself for them.

And they will not break bread for [the] mourning ceremony for them, to comfort him because of [the] dead. And they will not give drink to them, [the] cup of desolation, for their fathers, or for their mothers.

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

And it will be, that when you say all these words to the people, then they will say to you, Why has the Lord done all this evil against us? what is our wrongdoing and what is our sin which we have done against the Lord our God?

Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have given me up, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and become their servants and their worshippers, and have given me up and have not kept my law;

So I will throw you from this land to the land that you have not known, you or your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show you favor.

{Therefore} look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and it will no longer be said, "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,"

{but only} "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from [the] land of [the] north, and from all the lands where he had driven them," for I will bring them back to their ground that I gave to their ancestors.

Look, I [am] sending for many fishermen,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and they will fish them out, and {afterward} I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs.

And {I will first doubly repay} their iniquity and their sin because of their profaning my land with the dead bodies of their abhorrences, and [with] their abominations they have filled up my inheritance.'"