For lo, I will call all the officers of the kingdoms of the north, sayeth the LORD. And they shall come, and every one shall set his seat in the gates of Jerusalem, and in all their walls round about and through all the cities of Judah.

They shall fight against thee, but they shall not be able to overcome thee: for I am with thee, to deliver thee, sayeth the LORD."

Thou Israel wast hallowed unto the LORD, and so was his firstfruits. All they that devoured Israel, offended: misfortune fell upon them, sayeth the LORD."

Thus sayeth the LORD unto you, "What unfaithfulness found your fathers in me, that they went so far away from me, falling to lightness, and being so vain?

They thought not in their hearts, 'Where have we left the LORD, that brought us out of the land of Egypt? That led us through the wilderness; through a desert and rough land; through a dry and deadly land; yea a land that no man had gone through, and wherein no man had dwelt?'

The priests themselves said not once, 'Where is the LORD?' They that have the law in their hands, know me not: The shepherds offend against me. The Prophets do service unto Baal, and follow such things as shall bring them no profit.

For my people hath done two evils: They have forsaken me, the well of the water of life; and digged them pits, yea, vile and broken pits, that hold no water.

Why do they roar and cry then upon him, as a lion? They have made his land waste, his cities are so burnt up, that there is no man dwelling in them.

and thy wantonness is like a wild Ass, that useth the wilderness, and that snuffeth and bloweth at his will. Who can tame thee? All they that seek thee, shall not fail, but find thee in thy own uncleanness.

For they say to a stock, 'Thou art my father,' and to a stone, 'Thou hast begotten me.' Yea, they have turned their back upon me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble, when they say, 'Stand up and help us!'

It is but lost labour, that I smite your children, for they receive not my correction. Your own sword destroyeth your prophets, like a devouring lion.

Doth a maiden forget her raiment, or a bride her stomacher? But as for my people, they have forgotten me for days innumerable.

Then shall Jerusalem be called the LORD's seat, and all Heathen shall be gathered unto it, for the name of the LORD's sake, which shall be set up at Jerusalem. And from that time forth, they shall follow no more the imagination of their own froward heart.

Then those that be of the house of Judah shall go into the house of Israel: and they shall come together out of the North, into the same land that I have given your fathers.

And therefore the voice of the children of Israel was heard on every side, weeping and wailing: for they have defiled their way, and forgotten God their LORD.

Behold, the Heathen give Jerusalem warning, and preach unto her, that her destroyers are coming from far countries. They tell the cities of Judah the same also.

They shall give them warning in every place, like as the watchmen in the field. For they have provoked me to wrath, sayeth the LORD.

They cry murder upon murder; the whole land shall perish. Immediately my tents were destroyed, and my hangings, in the twinkling of an eye.

"Nevertheless this shall come upon them because my people is become foolish, and hath utterly no understanding. They are the children of foolishness, and without any discretion. To do evil, they have wit enough: but to do well, they have no wisdom."

I beheld the mountains, and they tremble, and all the hills were in a fear.

The whole land shall flee, for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen: they shall run into dens, into woods, and climb up the stony rocks. All the cities shall be void, and no man dwelling therein.

For though they can say, "The LORD liveth," yet do they swear to deceive.

Where as thou, O LORD, lookest only upon faith and truth. Thou hast scourged them, but they took no repentance: thou hast corrected them for amendment, but they refused thy correction. They made their faces harder than stone, and would not amend.

Therefore thought I in myself, "Peradventure they are so simple and foolish, that they understand nothing of the LORD's way, and judgments of our God.

Therefore will I go unto their heads and rulers, and talk with them: if they know the way of the LORD, and the judgments of our God." But these, in like manner, have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds in sunder.

"Should I then, for all this, have mercy upon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. And albeit they were bound to me in marriage, yet they fell to adultery, and hunted harlots' houses.

In the desire of uncleanly lust they are become like the stoned horse: every man neigheth at his neighbour's wife.

"Climb up upon their walls, beat them down, but destroy them not utterly: cut off their branches because they are not the LORD's.

They have denied the LORD, and said, 'It is not he. Tush, there shall no misfortune come upon us; we shall see neither sword nor hunger.'

Lo, I will bring a people upon you from far, O house of Israel, sayeth the LORD; a mighty people, an old people, a people whose speech thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

Their arrows are sudden death; yea, they themselves be very giants.

This people shall eat up thy fruit and thy meat; yea, they shall devour thy sons and thy daughters, thy sheep and thy bullocks. They shall eat up thy grapes and figs. As for thy strong and well-fenced cities, wherein thou didst trust, they shall destroy them with the sword.

But if they say, 'Wherefore doth the LORD our God all this unto us?' Then answer them, 'Because, that like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your own land, even so shall ye serve other gods also in a strange land!'"

Fear ye not me, sayeth the LORD? Are ye not ashamed, to look me in the face? Which bind the sea with the sand, so that it cannot pass his bounds: for though it rage, yet can it do nothing; and though the waves thereof do swell, yet may they not go over.

But this people hath a false and an obstinate heart, they are departed and gone away from me.

They think not in their hearts, 'O let us fear the LORD our God, that giveth us rain, early and late, when need is: which keepeth ever still the harvest for us yearly.'

And like as a net is full of birds, so are their houses full of that which they have gotten with falsity and deceit. Hereof cometh their great substance and riches,

hereof are they fat and wealthy, and are run away from me with shameful blasphemies. They minister not the law, they make no end of the fatherless cause, they judge not the poor according to equity.

Their tents shall they pitch round about her, and every one shall feed his part with his hand.

"Make battle against her!" shall they say. "Arise, let us go up, while it is yet day!" "Alas, the day goeth away, and the night shadows fall down!"

But unto whom shall I speak, whom shall I warn, that he may take heed? Their ears are so uncircumcised, that they may not hear. Behold, they take the word of God but for a scorn, and have no lust thereto.

"For from the least unto the most, they hang all upon covetousness: and from the prophet unto the priest, they go all about with falsity and lies.

And beside that, they heal the hurt of my people with sweet words, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace at all.

Therefore they must be ashamed, for they have committed abomination. But how should they be ashamed, when they know nothing, neither of shame nor good nurture? And therefore they shall fall among the slain; and in the hour when I shall visit them, they shall be brought down," sayeth the LORD.

Thus sayeth the LORD, "Go into the streets, consider and make inquisition for the old way: and if it be the good and right way, then go therein, that ye may find rest for your souls. But they say, 'We will not walk therein.'

And I will set watchmen over you, and therefore take heed unto the voice of the trumpet. But they say, 'We will not take heed.'

Hear thou earth also: behold, I will cause a plague come upon this people, even the fruit of their own imaginations. For they have not been obedient unto my words and to my law, but abhorred them.

with bows and with darts shall they be weaponed. It is a rough and fierce people, an unmerciful people: their voice roareth like the sea, they ride upon horses well appointed to the battle against thee, O daughter Zion!"

For they are all unfaithful and fallen away, they hang upon filthy lucre; they are clean brass and iron, for they hurt and destroyed every man.

Therefore shall they be called reprobate silver, because the LORD hath cast them out."

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and without Jerusalem?

The children gather sticks, the fathers kindle the fire, the mothers knead the dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings unto strange gods, to provoke me unto wrath.

Howbeit, they hurt not me," sayeth the LORD, "but rather confound, and shame themselves."

But they were not obedient. They inclined not their ears thereunto, but went after their own imaginations and after the motions of their own wicked heart: and so turned themselves away, and converted not unto me.

And this have they done, from the time that your fathers came out of Egypt, unto this day. Nevertheless, I sent unto them my servants, all the prophets. I rose up early and sent them word,

yet would they not hearken, nor offer me their ears; but were obstinate and worse than their fathers.

"And thou shalt now speak all these words unto them, but they shall not hear thee: thou shalt cry upon them, but they shall not answer thee.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, sayeth the LORD. They have set up their abominations, in the house that hath my name, and have defiled it.

They have also builded an altar at Tophet, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom: that they might burn their sons and daughters - which I never commanded them, neither came it ever in my thought.

And therefore behold, the days shall come, sayeth the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, or the valley of the children of Hinnom, but the valley of the slain - for in Tophet they shall be buried, because they shall else have no room.

and laid against the Sun, the Moon and all the heavenly host: whom they loved, whom they served, whom they ran after, whom they sought and worshipped. They shall neither be gathered together nor buried, but shall lie upon the earth, to their shame and despising.

And all they that remain of this wicked generation, shall desire rather to die than to live: wheresoever they remain, and whereas I scatter them, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

"This shalt thou say unto them also: Thus sayeth the LORD, Do men fall also, that they arise not up again? And turn they so far away, that they never convert?

Wherefore then is this people and Jerusalem gone so far back, that they turn not again? They are ever the longer, the more obstinate, and will not be converted.

therefore shall the wise be confounded. They shall be afraid and taken, for lo, they have cast out the word of the LORD: what wisdom can then be among them?

Wherefore, I will give their wives unto aliens, and their fields to destroyers. For from the lowest to the highest, they follow all filthy lucre: and from the Prophet unto the priest, they deal all with lies.

Nevertheless, they heal the hurt of my people with sweet words, saying, 'Peace, peace,' where there is no peace at all.

Fie! For shame! How abominable things do they? And yet they be not ashamed; yea, they know of no shame. Wherefore in the time of their visitation, they shall fall among the dead bodies, sayeth the LORD.

"Then shall the noise of his horses be heard from Dan; the whole land shall be afraid at the neigh of his strong horses. For they shall go in, and devour the land, with all that is in it: the cities, and those that dwell therein.

Moreover, I will send Cockatrices and serpents among you which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you," sayeth the LORD.

for lo, the voice of the crying of my people is heard from a far country: "Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not the king in her?" "Wherefore then have they grieved me," shall the LORD say, "with their images and foolish strange fashions?"

Would God that I had a cottage somewhere far from folk, that I might leave my people, and go from them: for they be all adulterers and a shrinking sort.

They bend their tongues like bows, to shoot out lies: As for the truth, they may nothing away with all in the world. For they go from one wickedness to another, and hold nothing of me, sayeth the LORD.

Yea, one dissesembleth with another, and they deal with no truth. They have practiced their tongues to lie, and taken great pains to do mischief.

They have set their stole in the midst of deceit, and for very dissembling falsity they will not know me, sayeth the LORD.

Their tongues are like sharp arrows, to speak deceit. With their mouth they speak peaceably to their neighbour, but privily they lay wait for him.

"Upon the mountains will I take up a lamentation and sorrowful cry, and a mourning upon the fair plains of the wilderness: Namely, how they are so burnt up, that no man goeth there any more. Yea, a man shall not hear one beast cry there. Birds and cattle are all gone from thence.

I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword among them, to persecute them, until I bring them to naught."

Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "Look that ye call for mourning wives, and send for wise women: that they come shortly,

Yea all the customs and laws of the Gentiles are nothing but vanity. They hew down a tree in the wood with the hands of the workman, and fashion it with the axe;

they cover it over with gold or silver; they fasten it with nails and hammers, that it move not.

It standeth as stiff as the palm tree, it can neither speak nor go, but must be borne. Be not ye afraid of such, for they can do neither good nor evil."

They are altogether unlearned and unwise. All their cunning is but vanity:

As for their gods, it may well be said of them, "They are gods, that made neither heaven nor earth: therefore shall they perish from the earth, and from all things under heaven."

His wisdom maketh all men fools. And confounded be all casters of images, for that they cast is but a vain thing, and hath no life.

The vain craftsmen with their works, that they in their vanity hath made, shall perish one with another in the time of visitation.

For thus sayeth the LORD, "Behold, I will now thrust out the inhabiters of this land a great way off, and trouble them of such a fashion, that they shall no more be found."

For the herdsmen have done foolishly, that they have not sought the LORD. Therefore have they dealt unwisely with their cattle, and all are scattered abroad.

Pour out thine indignation rather upon the Gentiles, that know thee not, and upon the people that call not on thy name: And that because they have consumed, devoured and destroyed Jacob, and have rooted out his glory.

Nevertheless, they would not obey me, nor inclined their ears unto me, but followed the wicked imaginations of their own hearts. And therefore have I accused them as transgressors of all the words of this covenant, that I gave them to keep, which they, not with understanding, have not kept."

They have turned themselves to the blasphemies of their forefathers, which had no lust to hear my word. Even likewise have these also followed strange gods, and worshiped them. The houses of Israel and Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers.

Then shall the towns of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem go, and call upon their gods, unto whom they made their oblations: but they are not able to help them in time of their trouble.

But pray not thou for this people; bid neither praise nor prayer for them. For though they cry unto me in their trouble, yet will I not hear them.

But I, as a meek lamb, was carried away to be slain: not knowing, that they had devised such a counsel against me saying, "We will destroy his meat with wood, and drive him out of the land of the living: that his name shall never be thought upon."

Thou plantest them, they take root, they grow, and bring forth fruit. They boast much of thee, yet doest thou not punish them.

How long shall the land mourn, and all the herbs of the field perish, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The cattle and the birds are gone, yet say they, "Tush, God will not destroy us utterly."

For thy brethren and thy kindred have altogether despised thee, and cried out upon thee in thine absence. Believe them not, though they speak fair words to thee.

Mine heritage is unto me, as a speckled bird; a bird of divers colors is upon it. Go hence, and gather all the beasts of the field together, that they may eat it up.

Divers herdsmen have broken down my vineyard, and trodden upon my portion. Of my pleasant portion, they have made a wilderness and desert.

They have laid it waste: and now that it is waste, it sigheth unto me. Yea, the whole land lieth waste, and no man regardeth it.