"Before she goes into labor she gives birth; before her pains come upon her she has delivered a son.

Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who ever sees such things? Can a country be born in a single day, or can a nation be brought forth in a single moment? Yet no sooner was Zion in labor than she delivered her children.

"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be happy for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in gladness, all you who mourn over her,

so that you may nurse and be satisfied at her consoling breasts, and so that you may drink deeply and take delight from her glorious bosom."

This is what the LORD says: "See, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; and you will nurse, and you will be carried on her hip, and bounced upon her knees.

Israel was consecrated to the LORD, she was the first fruits of his produce. All who devoured her became guilty and disaster came on them," declares the LORD.'"

a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her passion. When she's in heat, who can turn her away? None of the males who pursue her need to tire themselves out, for in her month they'll find her."

Will a young woman forget her wedding ornaments, or a bride her attire? But my people have forgotten me days without number.

"When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?" declares the LORD.

I thought, "After she has done all these things, she will return to me.' But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw this.

I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, and she, too, committed adultery.

She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Yet in all this her treacherous sister Judah didn't return to me with her whole heart, but rather deceptively," declares the LORD.

Instead, like an unfaithful wife leaves her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, house of Israel," declares the LORD.

"Tell the nations, "Here they come!' Proclaim to Jerusalem, "The besieging forces are coming from a distant land. They cry out against the cities of Judah.

They have surrounded her like those guarding a field because they have rebelled against me,'" declares the LORD.

"My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the aching of my heart! My heart pounds within me; I cannot keep silent. For I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm for war.

How long will I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

I heard a cry like that of a woman in labor, anguish like one giving birth to her firstborn, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for air, stretching out her hand: "Woe is me! I'm about to faint in front of killers!"

"Wander through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and investigate; search through her squares and see whether you find anyone even one person there doing justice and seeking truth. Then I'll forgive them.

"Go through her rows of vines and destroy them, but don't completely destroy them. Strip away her branches, because they aren't the LORD's.

"Hear this, you foolish and stupid people: They have eyes, but don't see; they have ears, but don't hear.

Shepherds and their flocks will come against her. They'll pitch their tents all around her, and every one will tend his flock in his own place.

Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let's attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

Get ready, let's attack at night, and destroy her fortresses."

As a well keeps its waters fresh, so the city keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and destruction are heard in her, sickness and wounds are always before me.

To whom will I speak and give a warning so they'll listen? Look, their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. Look, this message from the LORD is contemptible to them; they don't delight in it.

Therefore, hear, nations, and know, congregation, what will happen to them.

"Cut off your hair and throw it away; let your lamentations rise on the barren heights, because the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation that is subject to his wrath.

Why are we sitting here? Join together! Let's go to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has condemned us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.

Listen! My people cry from a distant land: "Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her king no longer there?" "Why did they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign gods?"

I'll weep and mourn for the mountains, and lament for the desert pastures, because they are desolate and no one passes through them. They don't hear the lowing of the cattle. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They're gone!

"Now, you women, hear the message from the LORD; listen to what he has to say! Teach your daughters how to mourn, let every woman teach her friend how to lament.

Hear the message that the LORD has spoken to you, house of Israel.

I'll forsake my house, I'll abandon my inheritance. I'll give the beloved of my heart into the hand of her enemies.

My inheritance has become like a lion in the forest to me. She roars at me; therefore, I hate her.

Is my inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to me? Are the other birds of prey all around her coming against her? Go, gather all the wild animals and bring them to devour it.

"Judah mourns, and her gates languish. The people mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

Even the doe in the field gives birth and then abandons her young because there is no grass.

I'll make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At noontime I'll send a destroyer against the mother of a young man. I'll cause terror and anguish to come to her unexpectedly.

"The woman who gave birth to seven will grow faint, her life will expire. Her sun will set while it's still day. She will be disgraced and humiliated. I'll kill the rest of them with swords in the presence of their enemies," declares the LORD.

Say to them, "Kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the residents of Jerusalem entering these gates, hear this message from the LORD.

"Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I'll allow you to hear my words."

"You are to say, "Hear this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem!

""This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle. For they have forsaken me and have treated this place as foreign. In it they have burned incense to other gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah knew. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocent people.

Indeed, I hear many people whispering, "Terror on every side. Denounce him, let's denounce him!" All my close friends watch my steps and say, "Perhaps he will be deceived, and we can prevail against him and take vengeance on him."

May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and a battle cry at noon,

because he didn't kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant.

"To the house of the king of Judah say, "Hear this message from the LORD.

But I'll punish you according to what you have done," declares the LORD. "I'll start a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her."'"

Among the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a horrible thing, for they commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that no one repents of his evil. All of them are like Sodom to me, and her residents like Gomorrah."

But who has stood in the LORD's council to see and hear his message? Who has paid attention to his message and obeyed it?

Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn't listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear.

But know for certain that if you kill me, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and its residents because the LORD really did send me to you to say all these things for you to hear."

When you call out to me and come and pray to me, I'll hear you.

Indeed, I'll bring you healing, and I'll heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD, "because they have called you an outcast and have said, "It is Zion, no one cares for her!"'"

Look, I'm bringing them from the northern region, and I'll gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. among them will be the blind and the lame, together with the pregnant woman and the woman in labor. A large group will return here.

This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter crying. Rachel is crying, and she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no longer alive."

Jerusalem will be for me a name of joy, praise, and glory to all the nations of the earth that hear about all the good that I'm doing for them. They'll fear and tremble because of all the good and because of all the peace that I'm bringing to Jerusalem.'

Yet, hear this message from the LORD, king Zedekiah of Judah. This is what the LORD says to you, "You won't die by the sword.

Perhaps the house of Judah will hear about all the calamity that I'm planning to bring on them, and so each of them will turn from his wicked way and I'll forgive their iniquities and sins."

If the officials hear that I've spoken with you, and they come to you and say, "Tell us what you told the king, and what the king told you; don't hide it from us, and we won't put you to death,'

and you also say, "No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we won't see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or hunger for bread, and there we will stay,"

then hear this message from the LORD, remnant of Judah: "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "If you are really determined to go into Egypt, and you go there to settle,

Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn't experience disaster.

From the time we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out liquid offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we have been consumed by the sword and famine.

Indeed, we are going to continue offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out liquid offerings to her. And do you think we have made cakes to represent her or poured out liquid offerings for her without our husbands' approval?"

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and acted with your hands: "We will certainly carry through on the vows that we vowed to offer sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pour out liquid offerings to her!" Go ahead, carry through on your vows, and diligently do what you vowed!'

Even the mercenary troops in her ranks are like a fattened calf. They too will turn around, and will flee together. They won't stand, for the day of their disaster is coming on them, the time of their punishment.

Her cry will be like that of a fleeing serpent when they come in strength. They're coming to her with axes like woodcutters.

They'll cut down her forest, though it's impenetrable," declares the LORD, "for they're more numerous than locusts, and there are too many of them to count.

The pride of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: "Come and let's eliminate her as a nation.' Madmen will also be silenced, and the sword will pursue you.

Moab will be destroyed; her little ones will cry out.

"Put salt on Moab for she will surely fall. Her towns will become desolate places, without any inhabitants in them.

Moab will be destroyed, and the enemy will come up against her cities. Her finest young men will go down to slaughter," declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"The one who flees from the terror will fall into a pit. And the one who comes up out of the pit will be caught in a trap. For I'll bring upon her, that is upon Moab, the time of her punishment," declares the LORD.

To the people of Ammon: This is what the LORD says: "Does Israel have no sons? Does he have no heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad, and his people settled in its towns?

Why do you boast in your valleys? Your valley is flowing away, faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, "Who will come against me?'

Indeed, I've sworn by myself," declares the LORD, "that Bozrah will become an object of horror and scorn, a waste, and an object of ridicule. All her towns will become perpetual ruins."

I've heard a message from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: "Gather together and come up against her, and rise up to fight.

"Edom will become an object of horror. Everyone who passes by her will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds.

Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

Therefore, hear the plan that the LORD has made against Edom, and the strategy that he devised against the inhabitants of Teman. Surely he will drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them.

The earth will quake at the sound of their fall. A cry it's her voice is heard at the Reed Sea.

Damascus will become weak. She will turn to flee, but panic will seize her. Distress and anguish will take hold of her like that of a woman giving birth.

Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"Declare and proclaim among the nations. Lift up a banner and proclaim. Don't conceal anything. Say, "Babylon will be captured. Bel will be disgraced, and Marduk will be destroyed. Her idols will be disgraced, and her filthy images will be destroyed.'

For a nation from the north will go up against her. It will make her land into an object of horror, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals will wander off, and they'll leave.

Indeed, I'm going to stir up and bring against Babylon a great company of nations from the land of the north. They'll deploy for battle against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior; they won't miss their targets.

Because of the anger of the LORD she won't be inhabited, but will be utterly devastated. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds.

Deploy the troops all around Babylon. All who bend the bow, shoot at her and spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.

Raise a battle cry against her on every side. She has surrendered, her pillars have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.

Come to her from afar. Open up her barns. Pile her up like heaps of grain, and completely destroy her. Don't leave any survivors.

Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.

"Summon many to Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Camp all around her, let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds. Do to her just as she has done. For she has behaved arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore, her warriors will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day," declares the LORD.

A sword against the Chaldeans," declares the LORD, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials and her wise men.

A sword against the diviners. They'll be made fools. A sword against her warriors. They'll be shattered.

A sword against her horses, against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst. They'll become women. A sword against her treasures. They'll be plundered.

A drought against her waters. They'll dry up. For it's a land of idols, and they go mad over their terrifying images.