"How can you say, 'I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?' Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. [You are] a young she-camel, interweaving her ways.

A wild ass accustomed to [the] desert, in the desire of her soul. She gasps [for] wind [in] her rutting time. Who can quell her [lust]? All [those who] seek her will not grow weary, in her month they will find her.

Can a young woman forget her ornaments? [Or] a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

A {saying}: 'Look, [if] a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him {and she becomes another man's wife}, will he return to her again?' Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted [yourself] [with] many lovers, [would] you now return to me?" {declares} Yahweh.

And I thought, 'After her doing all these [things] to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it].

And I saw that {for this very reason, that} on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted [herself] also.

And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.

Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, {but only} in pretense," {declares} Yahweh.

However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," {declares} Yahweh.

"Report to the nations, 'Here they are!' Proclaim against Jerusalem, 'Besiegers [are] coming {from a distant land}, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.'

Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around, because she has rebelled against me," {declares} Yahweh.

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."

Go up through her vineyards and destroy, but you must not make complete destruction. Remove her branches, for they [are] not to Yahweh.

And they will eat your harvest and your food, they will eat your sons and your daughters, they will eat your flock and your herd, they will eat your vine and your fig tree, they will smash with the sword {your fortified cities}, in which you trust.

Shepherds and their flocks will come against her, they will pitch [their] tents against her all around, they will pasture, each his {portion}.

{Sanctify} war against her. Arise, and let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day turns, for [the] shadows of evening are lengthened.

Arise, and let us attack by night, and let us destroy her citadel fortresses."

As a water well keeps its water cool, so she keeps cool her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard within her, sickness and wounds [are] continually {before me}.

Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, 'Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?' Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?"

For hear, women, the word of Yahweh, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters a lamentation, and each woman her neighbor a lament.

I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my {heart} into the hand of her enemies.

My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; {therefore} I hate her.

The lair of [the] hyena [is] my inheritance to me, the birds of prey [are] all around her. Go, gather all of the animals of the field, bring [them] {to come and devour}.

"Judah mourns, and her gates languish, they are in mourning on the ground, and the cry of lament of Jerusalem goes up.

For even [the] doe in the field gives birth and forsakes [her young], because there is no green growth.

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.

Because he did not kill me in [the] womb, so that my mother would have been for me my grave, and [her] womb [would be] pregnant forever.

For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: "He will not return here again.

{Therefore} look, here I am, and I will surely lift you up and forsake you and the city that I gave to you and to your ancestors from {my presence},

For I will present healing to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,' {declares} Yahweh. 'Because they have called you an outcast, [saying], "It is Zion, there is no [one who] cares for her." '

Look, I [am] going to bring them from [the] land of [the] north, and I will gather them from [the] remotest part of [the] earth. Among them [the] blind, and [the] lame, [those who are] pregnant, and [those who] give birth, together, a great assembly, they will return here.

Thus says Yahweh, "A voice [is] heard in Ramah, lamentation, [the] weeping of bitterness. Rachel [is] weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted because of her children, for they are no [more]."

But certainly we will do {everything} that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, [for] then {we had enough to eat}, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.

But {since} we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished.

And indeed, [when] we [were] making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and {pouring out} to her libations, [was it not] {with the consent of} our husbands [that] we made for her sacrificial cakes {marked with her image}, and we poured out to her libations?"

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'You and your wives have promised with your mouths and with your hands you have fulfilled, {saying}, "We certainly will carry out our vows that we vowed, to make smoke offerings to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations." You must certainly keep your vows and you must certainly carry out your vows.'

Egypt [is] a beautiful heifer, [but] a gadfly from [the] north [will] come against her.

Even her mercenaries in her midst [are] like calves of fattening, for they also have turned away, they have fled together. They stand not, for the day of their calamity has come, the time of their punishment.

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.

They will cut down her forest," {declares} Yahweh, "for {it is impenetrable}. Yes, they are more numerous than locusts, and {they are without number}.

Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said, "Look, I [am] going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

The glory of Moab is no longer. In Heshbon they planned evil against her. Come and let us cut her off from [being] a nation. Also, Madmen, you will be silent. After you will go [the] sword.

Moab is broken, her little ones {make heard} a cry for help.

Give salt for Moab, for certainly she will go to ruin, and her towns will become as a desolation, {without} an inhabitant in them.

Why do you boast in [your] valleys? Your valleys [are] ebbing. O unfaithful daughter, who trusted in her treasures, [who said], 'Who will come against me?'

For I have sworn by myself," {declares} Yahweh, "that Bozrah will become as a horror, as a disgrace, as a waste, and as a curse. And all her towns will be {everlasting sites of ruins}."

I have heard a message from Yahweh, and a messenger has been sent among the nations. "Gather and come against her, and rise for the battle."

Damascus has grown slack. She has turned away to flee and panic. Anxiety has seized [her], and labor pains have grasped her, like a woman in labor.

{Therefore} her young men will fall in her public squares, and all {the soldiers} will perish in that day," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.

"Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim, you must not conceal [it]. Say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is filled with terror, her idols are ashamed, her idols are filled with terror.

For a nation will come up against her from [the] north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they [all] will wander [off]. They will go [away].

For look, I [am] going to stir up, and I [am] going to bring against Babylon a contingent of great nations from [the] land of [the] north. And they will draw up a battle formation against her, from there she will be captured. Their arrows [are] like a warrior [who has] achieved success, he does not return without success.

And Chaldea will be as booty, all [those who] plunder her will be satisfied," {declares} Yahweh.

Because of the anger of Yahweh she will not be inhabited, but she will be a wasteland, all of her. Everyone [who] passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss because of all her wounds.

Draw up a battle formation at Babylon all around, all those who bend [the] bow, shoot at her. You must not spare arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.

Raise a war cry against her on all sides. {She has surrendered}. Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this [is] the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done [to others], [so] do to her.

To the land of Merathaim, go up against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod, massacre and destroy them," {declares} Yahweh, "and do according to all that I have commanded you.

Come against her from [the] end, open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps and destroy her. Let there be no remnant for her.

Massacre all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughtering. Woe to them, for [their] day has come, the time of their punishment.

Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend [the] bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, [so] do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.

{Therefore} her young men will fall in her public squares, and all {her soldiers} will perish on that day," {declares} Yahweh.

A sword against [the] Chaldeans," {declares} Yahweh, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials, and against her wise men.

A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become foolish. A sword against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.

A sword against his horses, and against his chariots, and against all the foreign troops who [are] in the midst of her, so that they may become as women. A sword against her treasures, so that they may be plundered.

A drought [will come] against her waters, and they will dry up, for it [is] a land of images, and because of the frightful [objects], they act like madmen.

{Therefore} desert creatures will live [there] with jackals, and daughters of ostriches will inhabit her. And she will not be inhabited again {forever}, and she will not be dwelt in {for all generations}.

As [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," {declares} Yahweh, "no one will live there, and [the] son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.

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}?

And I will send winnowers to Babylon, and they will winnow her, and they will lay waste her land, for they will be against her from all sides on [the] day of disaster.

Let not him who bends the bow shoot his bow, and let him not rise high in his body armor. And you must not spare her young men; destroy her whole army.

And they will fall slain in the land of [the] Chaldeans, and pierced through in her streets.

Flee from the midst of Babylon and save each one his life. You must not perish because of her guilt. For this [is the] time of vengeance for Yahweh, he [will] repay her what is deserved.

Babylon [was] a cup of gold in the hand of Yahweh, making drunk all the earth. [The] nations drank of her wine. {Therefore} [the] nations acted like madmen.

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and she is shattered. Wail over her! Take balm for her wounds, perhaps she may be healed.

We tried to heal Babylon, and she was not healed. Forsake her and let us go each one to his country, for her judgment has reached to the heavens, and it has been lifted up to [the] skies.

Raise a banner in the land; blow a horn among the nations; prepare for holy war against her; summon [the] nations against her, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; summon against her an official; bring up horses like bristling creeping locusts.

Prepare [the] nations for holy war against her, the kings of the Medes, with their governors and all their officials, and every land of their dominion.

The warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight, they remain in the strongholds, their power has dried up, they have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire, her bars are broken.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor [at the] time it [is] trodden down, {just a little while} and the time of the harvest will come for her."

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to contend your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will cause her sea to dry up, and I will cause her fountain to dry up.

Her cities have become as an [object of] horror, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no person lives, nor does a son of humankind pass through it.

Come out from her midst, my people, and save each one his life from {the burning anger of} Yahweh.

{therefore} look, days [are] coming, and I will punish the images of Babylon, and all her land will be put to shame, and all her slain ones will fall in the midst of her.

"{Therefore} look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will punish her images, and [the] fatally wounded will sigh through all her land.

Though Babylon goes up [to] the heavens, and though she fortifies the high place of her strength, from me destroyers will come to her," {declares} Yahweh.

For Yahweh [is] devastating Babylon, and he obliterates [her] loud noise from her. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the roar of their voices resounds.

For a destroyer [is] coming against her, against Babylon, and her warriors are captured. Their bows are broken; for Yahweh [is] a God of recompense, certainly he will repay.

"And I will make drunk her officials, and her wise men, her governors, and her officials, and her warriors, and they will sleep {an everlasting sleep}, and they will not wake up," {declares} the King, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly demolished, and her high gates will burn with fire, and [the] peoples will labor {for nothing}, and [the] nations {for fire}, and they will grow weary."

And you must say, 'Babylon will sink, and she will not rise, {because of} the face of the disasters that I [am] bringing on her, and they will grow weary.'" {Thus far} the words of Jeremiah.