For behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah, and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah:

and I will pronounce my judgments against them for all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto 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, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.

Thus saith Jehovah: What injustice have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and become vain?

And they said not, Where is Jehovah, that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and of pits, in a land of drought and of the shadow of death, in a land that no one passeth through, and where no man dwelleth?

The priests said not, Where is Jehovah? and they that handled the law knew me not; and the shepherds transgressed against me; and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

Hath a nation changed its gods? and they are no gods; but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.

The young lions roared against him, they gave forth their voice, and they made his land desolate: his cities are burned, without inhabitant.

a wild ass, used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind in her desire! In her ardour, who shall turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

As a thief is ashamed when he is found, so shall the house of Israel be ashamed they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets --

saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth; for they have turned the back unto me, and not the face; and in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us!

Where then are thy gods that thou hast made for thyself? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for as the number of thy cities, are thy gods, O Judah.

In vain have I smitten your children: they received no correction. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Would not that land be utterly polluted? But thou hast committed fornication with many lovers; yet return to me, saith Jehovah.

And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied in the land and become fruitful, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, Ark of the covenant of Jehovah! neither shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it; neither shall it be done any more.

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem; and they shall no more walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

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 which I caused your fathers to inherit.

A voice is heard upon the heights, the weeping supplications of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

and thou shalt in truth, in justice, and in righteousness swear, As Jehovah liveth! and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

As keepers of a field are they against her round about; for she hath been rebellious against me, saith Jehovah.

For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no intelligence; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

I beheld the earth, and lo, it was waste and empty; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills shook violently.

At the noise of the horsemen and bowmen, every city fleeth; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken and no man dwelleth therein.

And thou, wasted one, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rendest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair: thy lovers despise thee, they seek th

And if they say, As Jehovah liveth! surely they swear falsely.

Jehovah, are not thine eyes upon fidelity? Thou hast smitten them, but they are not sore; thou hast consumed them, they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

And I said, Surely these are the wretched ones, they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, the judgment of their God.

I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, the judgment of their God; but these have altogether broken the yoke, have burst the bonds.

Wherefore should I pardon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not God. I have satiated them, and they have committed adultery, and they troop to the harlots' house.

As well fed horses, they roam about, every one neigheth after his neighbour's wife.

Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements, for they are not Jehovah's.

They have denied Jehovah, and say, He is not; and evil shall not come upon us, nor shall we see sword nor famine;

Behold, I bring a nation upon you from afar, house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest thou what they say.

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre; they are all mighty men.

And they shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread, they shall eat up thy sons and thy daughters, they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds, they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall destroy with the sword thy strong cities, wherein thou trustedst.

Will ye not fear me? saith Jehovah. Will ye not tremble at my presence, who have set the sand a bound for the sea by a perpetual decree, and it shall not pass it? and its waves toss themselves, but they do not prevail; and they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

But this people hath a stubborn and a rebellious heart; they have turned aside and are gone.

And they say not in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the early and the latter, in its season; who preserveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as fowlers stoop down; they set a trap, they catch men.

As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and have enriched themselves.

They are become fat, they shine, yea, they surpass in deeds of wickedness; they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, and they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not adjudge.

Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: They shall thoroughly glean like a vine the remnant of Israel: turn back thy hand, as a grape-gatherer unto 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 Jehovah is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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

Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, neither know they what it is to blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

Thus saith Jehovah: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Also I have set watchmen over you: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts; for they have not hearkened unto my words, and as to my law, they have rejected it.

They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as a man for the battle, against thee, daughter of Zion.

They are all the most rebellious of rebels, going about with slander: they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; they have melted, and melted in vain; and the bad are not plucked away.

Reprobate silver shall they call them, for Jehovah hath rejected them.

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

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

Is it I whom they provoke to anger? saith Jehovah; is it not themselves, to the shame of their own face?

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

but they have not hearkened unto me, nor inclined their ear; and they have hardened their neck: they have done worse than their fathers.

And thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee; and thou shalt call unto them, but they will not answer thee.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith Jehovah; 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 commanded not, neither did it come up into my mind.

Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, when it shall no more be said, Topheth, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place.

At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring forth the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

and they shall spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of the heavens, 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: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the ground.

Why hath this people of Jerusalem slidden back with a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

I hearkened and heard: they speak not what is right; there is no man who repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turneth to his course, like a horse rushing into the battle.

The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected Jehovah's word; and what wisdom is in them?

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

Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, and they know not how to blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: the whole land trembleth at the sound of the neighing of his steeds, and they come, and devour the land, and all it contains, the city and those that dwell therein.

For behold, I send among you serpents, vipers against which there is no charm, and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, from a very far country: Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, with foreign vanities?

Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller's lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and not for fidelity are they valiant in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.

And they act deceitfully every one with his neighbour, and speak not the truth: they teach their tongue to speak falsehood, they weary themselves with perverse dealing.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.

For the mountains will I take up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; for they are burnt up, so that none passeth through them; and the voice of the cattle is not heard. Both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.

And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not hearkened unto my voice, nor walked in it,

and will scatter them 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 saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider, 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 are we spoiled, sorely put to shame! For we have forsaken the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.

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

They are as a palm-column of turned work, and they speak not; they are carried, for they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

But they are one and all senseless and foolish; the teaching of vanities is a stock.

Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artizan and of the hands of the founder; blue and purple is 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 saith Jehovah: Behold, I will this time sling out the inhabitants of the land, and will distress them, that they may be found.

My tent is despoiled, and all my cords are broken; my children are gone forth from me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not sought Jehovah; therefore have they not acted wisely, and all their flock is scattered.

Pour out thy fury upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have eaten up Jacob, yea, they have eaten him up and consumed him, and have laid waste his dwelling-place.

But they have not hearkened, nor inclined their ear, but have walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart; and I have brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they have not done.

They are 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 their fathers.

Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will bring evil upon them, from which they shall not be able to escape; and they will cry unto me, and I will not hearken unto them.

Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto whom they have burned incense; but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

And thou, pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

For Jehovah of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done for themselves, to provoke me to anger in burning incense unto Baal.

And I was like a tame lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.