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Turn aside from your detestable idols
and do not waver.
2 And if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives’,
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then the nations will be blessed by Him,
and in Him they will glory.”
3 This is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Break up your unploughed ground,
and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskins of your hearts,
O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem,
or My wrath will break forth like fire,
and burn with no one able to quench,
because of your evil deeds.
5 “Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land;
Shout aloud and say:
‘Gather together, and let us flee
into the fortified cities’.
6 Raise a signal flag toward Zion.
Flee for safety! Do not delay!’
“I am bringing disaster from the north,
and great destruction.”
7 A lion has come out from his thicket;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has departed from his domain
to lay waste your land.
Your cities will be reduced to ruins,
without inhabitant.
8 Because of this, put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned away from us.
9 “It will come to pass,”
declares the Lord,
“that on that day,
“the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be appalled,
and the prophets astonished.”
10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, you have completely deceived this people in Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace’, when a sword is at our throats.”
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind blows from the barren heights of the wilderness toward the daughter of My people. It does not come to winnow or cleanse; 12 a wind too strong for that comes at My call. Now I will also speak in judgment against them.”
13 Look, he advances like the clouds,
his chariots come like a whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are ruined!
14 “O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart,
so that you may be delivered.
How long will your malicious intentions
lodge within you?”
15 A voice announces from Dan,
proclaiming disaster from Mount Ephraim.
16 “Send out a warning to the nations,
proclaim it across Jerusalem:
‘A besieging army is coming from a distant land;
they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.
17 They close in around her like men guarding a field,
because she has rebelled against Me’,”
declares the Lord.
18 “Your own conduct and your deeds
have brought all this upon you.”
How bitter is this your punishment,
because it reaches to your heart!”
19 O my anguish, my anguish, I writhe in pain!
Oh, the agony of my heart!
My heart pounds wildly inside me;
I cannot keep silent.
For you have heard, O my soul,
the sounding of the trumpet,
the shout of the battle cry.
20 Disaster overtakes disaster,
the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
my tent curtains, in a moment.
21 How long must I see the signal flag,
and hear the sounding of the trumpet?
22 “My people are foolish;
they do not know Me.
They are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing what is evil,
but have no knowledge of doing good.”
23 I looked at the earth,
and it was formless and empty,
and at the heavens,
and they had no light.
24 I looked at the mountains,
and they were quaking,
and the hills were shaking.
25 I looked and there were no people,
and all of the birds of the sky had fled.
26 I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert,
and all of its cities were broken down
before the presence of the Lord,
by His fierce anger.
27 This is what the Lord says:
“The whole land will become a desolation,
yet I will not make a full end of it.
28 Though the earth mourn,
and the heavens above grow dark,
all that I have spoken, I have purposed;
I will not relent or turn back.”
29 At the noise of the horseman and the archer
every city takes to flight.
They enter thickets,
and climb among the rocks.
Every city is abandoned,
and no inhabitants are left.
30 And you, O plundered one, what will you do?
Though you clothe yourself in scarlet,
and adorn yourself with gold jewellery,
though you colour your eyes with paint,
you make yourself beautiful in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life.
31 I hear a cry like a woman in labour,
anguish as of a woman bearing her first child—
the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands and saying,
“Alas for me, for my soul grows weary
because of the murderers!”