"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, [the] source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

"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.

But where [are] your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For [according to] the number of your towns are your gods, Judah.

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

How well you do [on] your way to seek love! {Therefore} even [to] the wicked [woman] you can teach your ways.

Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, "Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted [herself] there.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror, your cities will go to ruin {without} inhabitant.

"Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, and look please, and take note, and search at its public squares, if you can find a person [who] does justice, [who] seeks honesty, so that I may forgive it.

"{How} can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by [those who are] not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked [to] the house of a prostitute.

But for this people is a stubborn and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and have gone [away].

"For from the smallest of them to the greatest of them, {everyone} makes profit for unlawful gain. And from the prophet to the priest, {everyone} practices deceit.

The children [are] gathering wood, and the fathers [are] kindling the fire, and the women [are] kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.

And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.

How can you say, 'We [are] wise and the law of Yahweh [is] with us'? Look, surely {the lying stylus of the scribes} has made it a lie.

Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors, because from [the] smallest to [the] greatest, all of them make profit [for] unlawful gain, from prophet to priest, all of them practice deceit.

"My comfort [is gone] from me, sorrow [is] on me, my heart [is] sick.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am] about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the {presence} of the daughter of my people?

For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for [the] pastures of [the] desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And [the] sounds of cattle are not heard, from [the] birds of heaven to [the] animals they have fled, they are gone.

Who [is] the wise man that can understand this? And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed? It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through."

My tent is devastated, and all my tent cords are torn. My children have gone out [from] me, and they are not. There is no [one who] pitches my tent again, or [one who] puts up my tent curtains.

They have turned back to the iniquities of their former ancestors, who refused to obey my words, and they have gone after other gods, to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I {made} with their ancestors."

{What rights has my beloved in my house} [when] she has done many wicked things? Can the flesh of holiness pass over you? For {you engage in your wickedness}, then you exult.

This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who go in the stubbornness of their hearts, and have gone after other gods, to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, let them be like this loincloth which is not good for anything.

"Say to the king and to the queen mother, '{Take a lower seat}, for {your beautiful crown} has come down from your head.'

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.

Are there [any] among the idols of the nation [who] cause rain to pour? Or can the heavens give showers? [Is] it not you, Yahweh our God? Therefore, we hope in you, for you do all these [things].

Can anyone break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

Then you shall say to them, '{Because} your ancestors have forsaken me,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and they have gone after other gods, and they have served them, and they have bowed down in worship to them, and they have forsaken me, and they have not kept my laws.

Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they [are] not gods!"

The heart [is] deceitful more than anything else, and it [is] disastrous. Who can understand it?

For I hear the rumor of many, "Terror [is] from all around, denounce [him], yes, let us denounce him!" {All my close friends} [are] watchers of my stumbling, [saying], "perhaps he can be persuaded, and we can prevail over him, and we can take our revenge on him."

Look, I [am] against you, O inhabitants of the valley, O rock of the plain," {declares} Yahweh; "you who say, 'Who can descend against us, or who can enter into our hiding place?'

"But there is nothing [in] your eyes and your heart {except} your unlawful gain, and on shedding the blood of the innocent, and on committing oppression and extortion."

"As I live," {declares} Yahweh, "surely if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were [the] seal on my right hand, surely from there I would wrench you off.

[Is] this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel? Or a vessel [in which] there is no delight? Why are he and his offspring thrown far, and cast away to the land that they do not know?"

Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth [in] wrath, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon [the] head of [the] wicked

Or can a person hide himself in secret places and I cannot see him?" {declares} Yahweh. "[Do] I not fill up the heaven and the earth?" {declares} Yahweh.

after the going out of Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the artisans, and the smiths from Jerusalem,

Ask please and see whether a male can bear a child. Why [do] I see every strong man [with] his hands on his loins like a woman giving birth? And [why] are all [their] faces changed to paleness?

Look, the storm of Yahweh! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon [the] head of [the] wicked.

Thus says Yahweh, "If [the] heavens above can be measured, and [the] foundations of [the] earth below can be explored, also I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all that they have done," {declares} Yahweh.

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Go and say to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "Can you not learn a lesson to listen to my words?" {declares} Yahweh.

And king Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had made king, reigned as king in the land of Judah in place of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim.

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.'

How can you be quiet when Yahweh has given an order to it? Against Ashkelon and against the shore of the sea, there he has appointed it."

Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has been quiet on his dregs, and he has not been poured out from vessel to vessel, and he has not gone into exile. {Therefore} his taste has remained unchanged, and his fragrance has not changed.

How can you say, 'we [are] warriors, and men of might for the battle.'

Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up, and the choice of his young men have gone down to the slaughtering," {declares} the King, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.

"In the shadow of Heshbon fugitives stand without strength, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from Sihon. And it has eaten the forehead of Moab, and the skulls of the people of tumult.

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}?"

My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They led them away [to the] mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their resting place.

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}?