For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says LORD. And they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls of it round about, and

And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

And they shall fight against thee. But they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, says LORD, to deliver thee.

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

Nor did they say, Where is LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none pa

For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled, and they have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs up the wind in her desire. In her time of estrus who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month they shall find her.

As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed, they, their kings, their rulers, and their priests, and their prophets,

who say to a block of wood, Thou are my father, and to a stone, Thou have brought me forth. 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 thy gods that thou have made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble. For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

In vain I have smitten your sons. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.

And though they say, As LORD lives, surely they swear falsely.

O LORD, do not thine eyes look upon truth? Thou have stricken them, but they were not grieved. Thou have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused t

Then I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they know not the way of LORD, nor the law of their God.

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

How can I pardon thee? Thy sons have forsaken me, and sworn by those who are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.

They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy, but make not a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not LORD's.

They have denied LORD, and said, It is not he. Neither shall evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword nor famine.

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says LORD. It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou know not, nor understand what they say.

Their quiver is an open sepulcher. They are all mighty men.

And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, [which] thy sons and thy daughters should eat. They shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds. They shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees. They shall beat down thy fortified cities,

Do ye not fear me? says LORD. Will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevai

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.

Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear LORD 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 lay in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grown rich.

They have grown fat. They shine. Yea, they overflow in deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper. And they do not judge the right of the needy.

Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her. They shall pitch their tents against her round about. They shall feed every one in his place.

Thus says LORD of hosts: They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine. Turn again thy hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word of LORD has become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

They have also lightly healed the hurt of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says LORD.

Thus says LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see. And ask for the old paths where is the good way. And walk in it, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk.

And I set watchmen over you, [saying], Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Hear, O earth: Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words. And as for my law, they have rejected it.

They lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses. Each one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion.

They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders. They are brass and iron. They all of them deal corruptly.

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.

See thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

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

Do they provoke me to anger? says LORD, [and] not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

Yet they hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

And thou shall speak all these words to them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou shall also call to them, but they will not answer thee.

For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says LORD. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

And 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 did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, 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, till there be no place [to bury].

At that time, says LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their gr

And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped. T

Why then has this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold firm deceit. They refuse to return.

I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak aright. No man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his course as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of LORD, and what manner of wisdom is in them?

And they have lightly healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says LORD.

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 have 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 LORD.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities?

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.

And they bend their tongue--their bow--for falsehood, and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says LORD.

And they will deceive each one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me, says LORD.

For the mountains I will 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, nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the

And LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked in it,

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Thus says LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skilful women, that they may come.

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

They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and do not speak. They must be carried, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good.

But they are together brutish and foolish, the instruction of idols! It is but a block of wood.

There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith, blue and purple for their clothing. They are all the work of skilful men.

They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they shall perish.

For thus says LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My sons have gone forth from me, and they are not. There is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds have become brutish, and have not inquired of LORD. Therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name. For they have devoured Jacob. Yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked each one in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.

They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear 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 which I made with the

Therefore thus says LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. And they shall cry to me, but I will not hearken to them.

Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

Therefore do not pray thou for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

For LORD of hosts, who planted thee, has pronounced evil against thee because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. And I knew not that they had devised devices against me, [saying], Let us destroy the tree with the fruit of it. And let us cut him off from the land of the living, that hi

Thou have planted them. Yea, they have taken root, they grow. Yea, they bring forth fruit. Thou are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

If thou have run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how can thou contend with horses? And though in a land of peace thou are secure, yet how will thou do in the pride of the Jordan?

For even thy brothers, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee, even they have cried aloud after thee. Believe them not, though they speak fair words to thee.

Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing. And ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of LORD.

And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As LORD lives, even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.

But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says LORD.

For as the sash clings to the loins of a man, so I have caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says LORD, that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory

Therefore thou shall speak to them this word. Thus says LORD, the God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. And they shall say to thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish. They sit in black upon the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

And their ranking men send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads,

because of the ground which is cracked. Because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame; they cover their heads.

And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no herbage.

Thus says LORD to this people: Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.