Tell your children of it, and let them show it to their children, and so they - to certify their posterity thereof.

For a nation has invaded our land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. Their teeth are like those of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness.

They have destroyed our vines; they have turned our fig trees into mere splinters. They have completely stripped off the bark and thrown them aside; the twigs are stripped bare.

Oh, how the livestock groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. Even flocks of sheep suffer!

"A fire blazes in their presence, and behind them a conflagration rages. Before they come, the land is like the garden in Eden; after they leave, there is only a barren wasteland. Indeed, nothing escapes them.

As the appearance of horses is its appearance, And as horsemen, so they run.

As the noise of chariots, on the tops of the mountains they skip, As the noise of a flame of fire devouring stubble, As a mighty people set in array for battle.

People writhe in fear when they see them. All of their faces turn pale with fright.

As mighty ones they run, As men of war they go up a wall, And each in his own ways they do go, And they embarrass not their paths.

And each his brother they press not, Each in his way they go on, If by the missile they fall, they are not cut off.

In the city they run to and fro, On the wall they run, Into houses they go up by the windows, They go in as a thief.

The Lord utters His voice before His army,
For His camp is very great,
Because strong and powerful is he who [obediently] carries out His word.
For the day of the Lord is indeed great and very terrible [causing dread];
Who can endure it?

Gather the people together; bring the elders to one place; gather the young children and they that suck the breasts, together. Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber and the bride out of her parlour.

Between the porch and the altar weep let the priests, ministrants of Jehovah, And let them say: 'Have pity, O Jehovah, on Thy people, And give not Thy inheritance to reproach, To the ruling over them of nations, Why do they say among peoples, Where is their God?'

"I will remove the northerners from you, driving them to a barren and desolate land the front toward the Dead Sea and the back toward the Mediterranean. Their stench will rise, and their stinking odor will ascend, because they have done great things."

Then I have gathered all the nations, And caused them to go down unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, And I have been judged with them there, Concerning My people and Mine inheritance -- Israel, Whom they scattered among nations, And My land they have apportioned.

And for My people they do cast a lot, And they give the young man for an harlot, And the young woman have sold for wine, That they may drink.

And, the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem, ye sold to the sons of Greece, - that they might be far removed from their own boundary.

And have sold your sons and your daughters Into the hand of the sons of Judah, And they have sold them to Shabeans, Unto a nation far off, for Jehovah hath spoken.

Call ye this among the nations: Consecrate war; rouse up the strong ones, they shall draw near, all the men of war shall come up.

Egypt a desolation becometh, And Edom a desolation, a wilderness, becometh, For violence to sons of Judah, Whose innocent blood they shed in their land.