For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north," says the LORD; "and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

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

They will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you," says the LORD, "to deliver you."

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

Neither did they say, 'Where is the 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 passed through, and where no man lived?'

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

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

a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

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

who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' 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 your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

"I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

"They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says the LORD.

It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says the LORD, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of the LORD;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more 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 that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.

and you shall swear, 'As the LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."

As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" says the LORD.

"For my people are foolish, they do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you dress yourselves with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you, they seek your life.

Though they say, 'As the LORD lives;' surely they swear falsely."

O LORD, do your eyes not look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the 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 the LORD, and the law of their God." But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

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

"Go up on her walls, and destroy; but do not make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not the LORD's.

They have denied the LORD, and said, "It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine.

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel," says the LORD. "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither understand what they say.

Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

Do you not fear me?' says the LORD 'Won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? And though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.'

"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 the 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 lie 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 grew rich.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel 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 all around; they shall feed everyone in his place."

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Pass your hand again 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 can't listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

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

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says the LORD.

Thus says the LORD, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." But they said, "We will not walk in it."

"I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet.'" But they said, "We will not listen."

Hear, earth. 'Behold, I will bring disaster on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.'"

"They are all grievous rebels, 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.

Do you not see 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 the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Do they provoke me to anger?" says the LORD. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"

But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

yet they did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers."

"You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

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

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 the 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, until there is no place to bury.

"At that time," says the LORD, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his officials, 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 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 worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

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

I listened and heard, but they did not speak what is right: no man repents him 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 disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what kind of wisdom is in them?

They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace;" when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the 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 the LORD.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: 'Isn't the LORD in Zion? Isn't her King in her?'" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved 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."

"They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me," says the LORD.

They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me," says the LORD.

"For the mountains will I 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; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone."

The LORD says, "Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.'"

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:"

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, 'How are we 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 can't go. Do not be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols. it is but a stock.

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 skillful men.

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

For thus says the 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 children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

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

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the families that do not call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation."

Yet they did not obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not do them.'"

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are 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 says the LORD, 'Behold, I will bring disaster on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.

Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem 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 for this people, neither 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 the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked 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 did not know that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."

You are righteous, LORD, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you 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 animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, "He shall not see our latter end."

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