How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don't swerve off course.

Neither does one jostle another; they march everyone in his path, and they burst through the defenses, and don't break ranks.

They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.

Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people, Yahweh, and don't give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for Yahweh has spoken it."

Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.