Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child."

But Yahweh said to me, "Don't say, 'I am a child;' for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.

Don't be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you," says Yahweh.

Then Yahweh said to me, "You have seen well; for I watch over my word to perform it."

For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north," says Yahweh; "and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

They will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you," says Yahweh, "to deliver you."

"Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

Thus says Yahweh, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.

Has a nation changed [its] gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

"Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

"For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve;' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me," says the Lord Yahweh.

"Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.'

who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

"But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head; for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says Yahweh.

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says Yahweh; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says Yahweh. 'I will not keep [anger] forever.

"Return, backsliding children," says Yahweh; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. "Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.

Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God."

For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don't wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction."

For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.

a full wind from these shall come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them."

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.

For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:

"Tell the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, 'Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.

"Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart."

Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

For thus says Yahweh, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.

For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it."

Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], "Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers."

Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.

I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God." But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Shouldn't I punish them for these things?" says Yahweh; "and shouldn't my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

"Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me," says Yahweh.

Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, "Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel," says Yahweh. "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.

Don't you fear me?' says Yahweh 'Won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.'

Neither do they say in their heart, 'Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.'

For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

"Shall I not punish for these things?" says Yahweh. "Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

"Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.

"Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

For Yahweh of Armies said, "Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with holding in. "Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.

Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh."

"For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

Thus says Yahweh, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'

Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me."

Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are on every side.

Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.

The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place [to bury].

The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.

Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.

For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?

For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.

Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.

Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.

Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:

and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men from the streets.

but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.