For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah, "You [are like] Gilead to me, [like] the head of the Lebanon. {Surely} I will make you a desert, [like] cities [that] are not inhabited.

Look, he comes up like the clouds, and his chariots [are] like the whirlwind, his horses are swifter than eagles, woe to us, for we are devastated.

For I heard a voice like an ill woman, anxiety like [a woman who] bears her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion. She is gasping for breath, she is spreading out her hands: "Woe is me, for I am becoming tired before killers."

[The] bow and [the] short sword they grasp [are] cruel, and they show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride, drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion."

Speak, 'thus {declares} Yahweh: "The dead body of the human will fall like dung upon the surface of the field, and like cut grain behind the reaper, and there is no [one who] gathers." '"

[You are] the hope of Israel, its savior in time of distress. Why should you be like an alien in the land, or like a traveler who spreads out [his tent] to spend the night?

Why should you be like a confused man, like a warrior [who] is not able to help? Yet you [are] in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called upon us. You must not leave us!

"Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?" {declares} Yahweh. "Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so [are] you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken in my midst. All my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, even like a man over whom wine has passed, because of Yahweh, and because of {his holy words}.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies, and they make strong [the] hands of evildoers, [so] that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

"[Is] not my word like fire?" {declares} Yahweh, "and like a blacksmith's hammer [that] breaks a rock into pieces?

And a curse will be taken [up] because of them by all the exiles of Judah who [are] in Babylon, {saying}, "May Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,"

Who [is] this that rises like the Nile, like the rivers whose waters surge?

Egypt rises like the Nile, even like the rivers [whose] waters surge. And he says, "Let me rise, let me cover [the] earth, let me destroy cities, and the inhabitants in them."

{As I live}," {declares} the king, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name, "one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.

Her sound [is] like a snake [that] glides away, for they march in force. And with axes they come to her like those who chop trees.

{Therefore} my heart moans for Moab like the flute. It moans for the people of Kir-heres like the flute. {Therefore} [the] wealth they gained has perished.

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}. So {I will chase him away hurriedly} from it. And whoever [is] chosen I will appoint over it. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me? And who [is] this, [the] shepherd who can stand {before me}?"

Look, like an eagle he will go up and he will swoop down, and he will spread out his wings against Bozrah. And the heart of the warriors of Edom will be in that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.

"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}, so {I will chase them away quickly} from her, and I will appoint whoever [is] chosen over her. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me, and who [is] this shepherd who can stand {before me}?

They will roar together like the young lions, they will growl like the cubs of lions.

"I will bring them down like young rams to slaughter, like rams and goats.