So says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and have set up My banner to the people; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

So says Jehovah, Where is your mother's bill of divorce, whom I have put away? Or to which of My creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother is put away for your sins.

Who knows why I have come, and no one is here? I called and no one answered. Is My hand shortened at all so that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.

For the Lord Jehovah will help Me; therefore I have not been ashamed. On account of this I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who are surrounded with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have of My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

And I have put My Words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are My people.

Awake! Awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, who drank the cup of His fury from the hand of Jehovah; you have drunk the cup of reeling to the dregs, and wrung them out.

These two things have come to you, who shall be sorry for you? Desolation, and ruin, and the famine, and the sword. By whom shall I comfort you?

Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the street like a wild antelope in a net, filled with the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of your God.

So says your Lord Jehovah, and your God who strives for His people, Behold, I have taken the cup of reeling from your hand, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall never drink it again.

But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down so that we may cross; and put your back as the ground, even as the street to those who cross.

Now therefore, what have I here, says Jehovah, that My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule make them howl, says Jehovah; and without ceasing My name is blasphemed every day.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

For a little moment I have left you; but with great mercies I will gather you.

In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says Jehovah your Redeemer.

For this is as the waters of Noah to Me; for as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn from being angry with you and from rebuking you.

Behold, I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire, and who brings out a tool for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Leader and Commander of peoples.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough; and they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, to his own end.

Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, even they, are your lot; even to them you have poured a drink offering, you have offered a food offering. Should I be consoled over these?

On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice.

Also behind the door and the post you have set up your image; for you uncovered yourself and went up from Me. You spread your bed and cut a covenant with them; you loved their bed where you looked.

And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied and have not remembered Me, nor laid it to your heart? Have I not been silent, even from forever, and you did not fear Me?

For I will not contend forever, nor will I be always angry; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls I have made.

I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will also lead him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

They say, Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and You take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and crush all your laborers.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke?

But your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, from hearing.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.

They did not know the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their paths. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them shall not know peace.

As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah; My Spirit that is on you, and My Words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says Jehovah, from now on and forever.

For your shame you will have double; and for disgrace they will rejoice in their portion; therefore in their own land they will possess double; everlasting joy will be theirs.

I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who will not always be silent all the day nor all the night; you who remember Jehovah, do not be silent.

Jehovah has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and the sons of strangers will not drink your wine for which you have labored.

I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with Me; for I will tread them in My anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood will be sprinkled on My garments, and I will stain all My clothing.

O Jehovah, why have You made us wander from Your ways. You harden our heart from Your fear? For Your servants' sake, return the tribes of Your inheritance.

The people of Your holiness have possessed it but a little while; our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.

And from forever they have not heard, nor did they listen. Eye has not seen a God except You, who works for him who waits for Him.

But we are all as the unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as a menstruation cloth. And we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us, and have melted us away because of our iniquities.

I have spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people who walk in the way not good, after their own thoughts;

And Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting-place of herds for My people who have sought Me.

He who kills an ox is is as if he killed a man; he who sacrifices a lamb is as if he broke a dog's neck; he who offers an offering is as if he offered swine's blood; he who burns incense is as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.

And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape from them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, drawers of the bow; to Tubal, and Javan, to the far away coasts that have not heard My fame, nor have seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations.

And they will go out and see the dead bodies of the men who have sinned against Me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be put out; and they will be an object of disgust to all flesh.

And Jehovah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And Jehovah said to me, Behold, I have put My Words in your mouth.

Behold! I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

And Jehovah said to me, You have seen well; for I will watch over My Word to perform it.

And I will pronounce My judgments against them regarding all their evil, those who have forsaken Me, and burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

For, behold, I have made you a fortified city this day, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its rulers, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

Has a nation changed their gods who are yet no gods? But My people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit.

For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Also the sons of Noph and Tahapanes have fed on the crown of your head.

Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, when He led you by the way?

Your own evil shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you, therefore know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, and that My fear is not in you, says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts.

Yet I planted you a noble vine, wholly a true seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate shoots of an alien vine to Me?

How can you say, I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baals? See your way in the valley, know what you have done! You are a swift camel crossing its ways;

Withhold your foot from being bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, There is no hope; no; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.

saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You gave me birth. 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, O Judah.

Why will you plead with Me? You all have sinned against Me, says Jehovah.

In vain I have stricken your sons; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

O generation, see the Word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, We roam freely; we will come no more to You?

Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

Why did you trim your way to seek love? Therefore you have also taught the evil women your ways.

Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you say, I have not sinned.

Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see. Where have you not been lain with? By the highways you have sat for them, like the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have defiled the land with your fornications and with your wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a harlot's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

Will He keep His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done all the evil things you could do.

Jehovah also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has fornicated there.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have sinned against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.

And it will be when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah! Nor shall it come to mind; nor shall they remember it; nor shall they visit it; nor shall it be made any more.

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 have given for an inheritance to your fathers.

Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah.

A voice was heard on the high places weeping, cryings of the sons of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; but the sword reaches to the soul.

Your way and your doings have brought these things on you; this is your evil, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart.

My bowels, my bowels! I convulse in pain. O walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me; I cannot be silent because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the ram's horn, the alarm of war.

For My people are foolish; they have not known Me; they are stupid sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

The earth shall mourn for this, and the heavens above shall be black, because I have spoken, I have purposed, and will not repent, nor will I turn back from it.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, the anguish as one bearing her first child, the voice of Zion's daughter, gasping and spreading her hands, saying, Woe to me now! For my soul faints because of murderers.

O Jehovah, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

I will go up for myself to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of Jehovah and the judgment of their God. But these have broken the yoke together and have torn off the bonds!

Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very deceitfully against Me, says Jehovah.

They have lied against Jehovah and said, It is not He; neither shall evil come on us; nor shall we see sword nor famine.

And it will be, when you shall say, Why does Jehovah our God do all these things to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Now hear this, O foolish people and without heart; who have eyes and see not; who have ears and hear not;

Do you not fear Me? says Jehovah. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

They have become fat, they shine. Yes, they go past the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may get rich; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so, and what will you do at the end of it?

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are not circumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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