For the spoiler of the Gentiles is broken up from his place, as a lion out of his den, that he may make the land waste, and destroy the cities, so that no man may dwell therein.

"At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be told, 'A scorching wind will sweep down from the hilltops in the desert on my dear people. It will not be a gentle breeze for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff.

No, a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding. Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.'

For lo, he cometh down like as a cloud, and his chariots are like a stormy wind: his horsemen are swifter than the Eagle. Woe unto us, for we are destroyed.

For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

Thy way and thy doings have done these to thee, This is thy vexation, for it is bitter, For it hath struck unto thy heart.

I see one destruction after another taking place, so that the whole land lies in ruins. I see our tents suddenly destroyed, their curtains torn down in a mere instant.

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

For thus hath the LORD said, "The whole land shall be desolate, yet will I not then have done.

From the sound of a horseman and {an archer} every town flees, they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb. Every town [is] forsaken, and there is no person [who] lives in them.

In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, "I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!"

The Lord said, "Go up and down through the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and see for yourselves. Search through its public squares. See if any of you can find a single person who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. If you can, then I will not punish this city.

Lord, don’t Your eyes look for faithfulness?
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.

Then I thought:

They are just the poor;
they have played the fool.
For they don’t understand the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.

Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.
A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.
A leopard keeps watch over their cities.
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,
their unfaithful deeds numerous.

"Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.

And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel," says Yahweh. "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.

And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall beat down thy fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword.

Nevertheless, I will not then have done with you, sayeth the LORD.

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Hear this,
you foolish and senseless people.
They have eyes, but they don’t see.
They have ears, but they don’t hear.

Don't you fear me?' says Yahweh 'Won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.'

They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear the LORD our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn and the spring rain. He sets aside for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as fowlers stoop down; they set a trap, they catch men.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excell in deeds of wickedness. They don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don't judge the right of the needy.

Horrible and grievous things are done in the land.

The prophets, have prophesied, falsely, And the priests tread down by their means, And, my people, love it, so, - What then can ye do as to her latter end?

“Run for safety, you children of Benjamin,
Out of the midst of Jerusalem!
And blow a trumpet in Tekoa [in Judah]
And raise a signal-fire in Beth-haccherem [near Jerusalem];
For evil is looking down [with eager anticipation] from the north,
And great destruction.

"Make battle against her!" shall they say. "Arise, let us go up, while it is yet day!" "Alas, the day goeth away, and the night shadows fall down!"

For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

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.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Don’t go out to the fields;
don’t walk on the road.
For the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.

Stand thou in the gate of the house of Yahweh, and thou shalt proclaim there this word, - and shalt say - Hear ye the word of Yahweh all Judah ye who are entering in at these gates, to bow down unto Yahweh:

Don't trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.

if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear by false gods, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods that you don't know,

Then come ye, and stand before me in this house, which hath my name given unto it, and say 'Tush, we are absolved quite, though we have done all these abominations.'

Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

But go ye, I pray you, Unto My place that is in Shiloh, Where I caused My name to dwell at first, And see that which I have done to it, For the wickedness of My people Israel.

And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

And this have they done, from the time that your fathers came out of Egypt, unto this day. Nevertheless, I sent unto them my servants, all the prophets. I rose up early and sent them word,

but they have not hearkened unto me, nor inclined their ear; and they have hardened their neck: they have done worse than their fathers.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

And shall spread them out - To the sun, and To the moon, and To all the host of the heavens, Whom they have loved, And whom they have served, And after whom they have walked, And whom they have sought, And to whom they have bowed themselves down, - They shall not be gathered, Neither shall they be buried, As heaps of dung on the face of the ground, shall they be.

"You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD says: "Will a person fall down and then not get up? Will someone turn away and then not turn back again?

I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's law.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Why are we seated doing nothing? come together, and let us go to the walled towns, and let destruction overtake us there, for the Lord our God has sent destruction on us, and given us bitter water for our drink, because we have done evil against the Lord.

The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

"Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down, I mourn, horror has seized me.

They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.

Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.
Don’t trust any brother,
for every brother will certainly deceive,
and every friend spread slander.

People deceive their friends, and they don't tell the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They exhaust themselves practicing evil.

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!

And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

For death comes up through our windows; it has come into our palaces to eliminate children from the streets and young men from the town squares.

Tell your daughters and neighbors, 'The Lord says, "The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere like manure scattered on a field. They will lie scattered on the ground like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered."'"

Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches;

Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

For the statutes of the peoples [are] vanity, for it [is] a tree cut down from [the] forest, [the] work of [the] hands of a craftsman with the tool.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town.

My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains.

For the shepherds are stupid:
they don’t seek the Lord.
Therefore they have not prospered,
and their whole flock is scattered.

Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

Pour out Your wrath on the nations
that don’t recognize You
and on the families
that don’t call on Your name,
for they have consumed Jacob;
they have consumed him and finished him off
and made his homeland desolate.

That I commanded your fathers, In the day of My bringing them out from the land of Egypt, Out of the iron furnace, saying, Hearken to My voice, and ye have done them, According to all that I command you, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I am to you for God,

And Jehovah saith unto me, 'Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of this covenant, And ye have done them.

But they have not hearkened, nor inclined their ear, but have walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart; and I have brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they have not done.

Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

“What right has My beloved [to be] in My house
When she has done many vile things and acted treacherously [over and over again]?
Can vows and the meat of your sacrifices remove your wickedness from you and cancel the consequences of your sin,
So that you can [escape your judgment and] rejoice?”

For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

So I said to the Lord, "O Lord who rules over all, you are a just judge! You examine people's hearts and minds. I want to see you pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause."

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who seek to kill you, all the while threatening you, "Don't prophesy in the name of the LORD so you won't die by our hand!"

You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you.

“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,
Then how can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: don't believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

Many shepherds did destroy My vineyard, They have trodden down My portion, They have made My desirable portion Become a wilderness -- a desolation.

They have sown wheat, but they have harvested thorns. They have tired themselves out, but they don't show a profit. Now be disappointed about your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

But if they don't listen, then I'll completely uproot that nation and destroy it," declares the LORD.

This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it on, but do not put it in water.”

This wicked people who are refusing to hear my words, who are walking in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods, to serve them and to bow down to them, yea let them be like this girdle, which is good for nothing.

“Say this to them: This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every jar should be filled with wine. Then they will respond to you, ‘Don’t we know that every jar should be filled with wine?’

Hear, and give ear; don't be proud; for Yahweh has spoken.

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive.

Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you.

Why are You like a helpless man,
like a warrior unable to save?
Yet You are among us, Yahweh,
and we are called by Your name.
Don’t leave us!

Then the Lord spoke about these people. "They truly love to go astray. They cannot keep from running away from me. So I am not pleased with them. I will now call to mind the wrongs they have done and punish them for their sins."

Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people for [their] good.

Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.