What is thy beloved above any beloved, O fair among women? What is thy beloved above any beloved, That thus thou hast adjured us?

Where has your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? where has your beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with you.

My beloved has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.

How fair and how pleasant hast thou been, O love, in delights.

Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine has budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened, and the pomegranates are in bloom: there will I give you my loves.

We have a little sister, and she has no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

Solomon has a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers each one is to bring 1,000 pieces of silver in exchange for its fruit.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no knowledge, my people give no thought to me.

Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? Your head has a massive wound, your whole body is weak.

The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds.

Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.

And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a town shut in by armies.

When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

How has the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water:

Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me;

For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with what comes from the east, and use auguries like the Philistines, and ally themselves with the children of foreigners.

Their land has also been filled with silver and gold
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with horses
And there is no end to their chariots.

Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.

So the common man has been humbled
And the man of importance has been abased,
But do not forgive them.

Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, for all the high and mighty, for all who are proud -- they will be humiliated;

Put no more trust in man,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
What is he really worth?

The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the prophet; the man who has knowledge of secret arts, and the man who is wise because of his years;

When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father,'saying , Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand;

For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has come on Judah, because their words and their acts are against the Lord, moving the eyes of his glory to wrath.

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?" The sovereign Lord who commands armies has spoken.

Again, the Lord has said, Because the daughters of Zion are full of pride, and go with outstretched necks and wandering eyes, with their foot-chains sounding when they go:

And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion, and of those who have been kept from destruction in Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem:

When Zion has been washed from her sin by the Lord, and Jerusalem made clean from her blood by a judging and a burning wind.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill:

The Lord of armies has said to me secretly, Truly, numbers of great and fair houses will be waste, with no one living in them.

Therefore sheol has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that exults, shall descend into it.

Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has stricken them: and the hills did tremble, and their dead bodies were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

And He saith, 'Go, and thou hast said to this people, Hear ye -- to hear, and ye do not understand, And see ye -- to see, and ye do not know.

And the LORD has removed men far away, and there are many forsaken places in the midst of the land.

And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will again be burned, like a tree of the woods whose broken end is still in the earth after the tree has been cut down (the holy seed is the broken end).

It was reported to the family of David, "Syria has allied with Ephraim." They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

and thou hast said unto him: 'Take heed, and be quiet, fear not, And let not thy heart be timid, Because of these two tails of smoking brands, For the fierceness of the anger of Rezin and Aram, And the son of Remaliah.

Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying,

"But this is what the Lord GOD has to say: ""It won't take place. It won't ever happen.

“Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; make your request as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

The Lord is about to send on you, and on your people, and on your father's house, such a time of trouble as there has not been from the days of the separating of Ephraim from Judah; even the coming of the king of Assyria.

And Jehovah said unto me, Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz;

And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said Jehovah unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

"Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices [over] Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

I will wait patiently for the Lord, who has rejected the family of Jacob; I will wait for him.

Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in mount Zion.

for instruction and for testimony? Surely they are speaking like this because the truth hasn't dawned on them.

But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.

Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian.

For to us a child has come, to us a son is given; and the government has been placed in his hands; and he has been named Wise Guide, Strong God, Father for ever, Prince of Peace.

The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel.

For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of Israel, driving them on to make war against him;

Aram from [the] east and Philistines from [the] west-- and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth. He has not turned away his anger in all of this, and his hand is still stretched out.

So the LORD has cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day

Therefore the Lord does not rejoice
over Israel’s young men
and has no compassion
on its fatherless and widows,
for everyone is a godless evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

"For wickedness has burned like a blaze that consumes briers and thorns; it sets thickets of the forest on fire, and skyward they swirl in a column of smoke.

The land is scorched
by the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
and the people are like fuel for the fire.
No one has compassion on his brother.

Manasseh [devoured] Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they [were] against Judah. In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand [is] stretched out.

{save that they bow down under the prisoners and fall under the slain}? In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand [is] stretched out.

As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria:

Therefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them;

And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

Israel, even if your people were as numerous
as the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of them will return.
Destruction has been decreed;
justice overflows.

because the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will bring about destruction, as has been decreed, throughout the entire region.

He has come to Aiath, he has passed to Migron; at Michmash he has stored his supplies:

They are gone over the pass: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Madmenah has fled; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

On that day you will say:
“I will praise You, Lord,
although You were angry with me.
Your anger has turned away,
and You have had compassion on me.

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

Sing unto the LORD; for he has done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.

Hyenas will howl in their castles,
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time has nearly come,
And her days will not be prolonged.

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.

Yea, the cypress trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you were laid low, no hewer has come up against us.

Sheol from beneath is excited for you to meet you at your coming: it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All of them answer and say unto thee, Even thou hast become weak like us! Unto us thou hast become like!

Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you, and your body is covered with them.

How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn! Thou hast been cut down to earth, O weakener of nations.

For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

And -- thou hast been cast out of thy grave, As an abominable branch, raiment of the slain, Thrust through ones of the sword, Going down unto the sons of the pit, As a carcase trodden down.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever.

“I will make her a swampland and a region for screech owls, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.”

This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

Don't be so happy, all you Philistines, just because the club that beat you has been broken! For a viper will grow out of the serpent's root, and its fruit will be a darting adder.

Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town! All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place in the line.

What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

The word about Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer; for in a night Kir of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer.