4 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, if thou wilt return unto me, and ^[a]if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed; ² and thou shalt swear, As Jehovah liveth, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. ³ For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴ Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵ Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. ⁶ Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. ⁷ A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸ For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us. ⁹ And it shall come to pass at that day, saith Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

¹⁰ Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the life.

¹¹ At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse; ^12 [b]a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them. ¹³ Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined. ¹⁴ O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee? ¹⁵ For ^[c]a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim. ¹⁶ Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷ As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she hath been rebellious against me, saith Jehovah. ¹⁸ Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; ^[d]for it is bitter, ^[e]for it reacheth unto thy heart.

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! ^[f]I am pained at ^[g]my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because ^[h]thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰ Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. ²¹ How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²² For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

²³ I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴ I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills ^[i]moved to and fro. ²⁵ I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. ²⁶ I beheld, and, lo, ^[j]the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before his fierce anger. ²⁷ For thus saith Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. ²⁸ For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. ²⁹ Every city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein. ³⁰ And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou ^[k]enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life. ³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers.

5 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh ^[l]truth; and I will pardon her. ² And though they say, As Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely. ³ O Jehovah, ^[m]do not thine eyes look upon ^[n]truth? thou hast stricken them, but they were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive ^[o]correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God: ⁵ I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. ⁶ Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the ^[p]evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

⁷ How can I pardon thee? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had ^[q]fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots’ houses; ⁸ they were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. ⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah’s. ¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith Jehovah. ¹² They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: ¹³ and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

¹⁴ Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. ¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is ^[r]a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. ¹⁶ Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. ¹⁷ 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 ^[s]beat down thy fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword. ¹⁸ But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, ²¹ Hear now this, O foolish people, and without ^[t]understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not: ²² Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, ^[u]by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it. ²³ But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. ²⁴ Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. ²⁵ Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good from you. ²⁶ For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. ²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich. ²⁸ They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. ²⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

^30 [v]A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land: ³¹ the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule ^[w]by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

6 Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great destruction. ² The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off. ³ Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. ^4 [x]Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day declineth, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵ Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. ⁶ For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down ^[y]trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. ⁷ As a well ^[z]casteth forth its waters, so she ^[aa]casteth forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds. ⁸ Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from thee; lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again thy hand as a grape-gatherer ^[ab]into the baskets. ¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah is become unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. ¹¹ Therefore I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. ¹² And their houses shall be turned unto others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah. ¹³ For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. ¹⁴ They have healed also the ^[ac]hurt of ^[ad]my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ^15 [ae]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 ^[af]be cast down, saith Jehovah.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. ¹⁷ And I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken. ¹⁸ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. ¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. ²⁰ To what purpose cometh there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet ^[ag]cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me. ²¹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish. ²² Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, a people cometh from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

²³ They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴ We have heard the report thereof; our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pangs as of a woman in travail. ²⁵ Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side. ²⁶ O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

²⁷ I have made thee a ^[ah]trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way. ²⁸ They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. ²⁹ The bellows ^[ai]blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰ Refuse silver shall men call them, because Jehovah hath rejected them.