If you will return, O Israel, declares Jehovah,
Return to Me;
And if you put away your detestable things from My presence
And do not wander,

And swear, As Jehovah lives,
In truth and in justice and in righteousness,
Then the nations will bless themselves in Him,
And in Him they will glory.

For thus says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,
Break up your  ¹fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah,
And remove the foreskins of your heart,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Lest My wrath go forth like fire
And burn, and there be no one to quench it
Because of the evil of your deeds.

Declare in Judah
And proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the trumpet in the land;
Cry aloud and say,
Gather yourselves and let us go
Into the fortified cities.

Raise up a standard toward Zion.
Seek refuge; do not stay;
For I am bringing evil from the  ¹north,
And great destruction.

A  ¹lion has come up from his thicket,
And a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has gone forth from his place
To make your land a waste;
Your cities will be ruins,
Without an inhabitant.

For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth,
Wail and howl;
For the burning anger of Jehovah
Has not turned away from us.

And in that day, declares Jehovah, the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.

And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You will have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.

At that time it will 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 for winnowing nor for purging

(A wind too strong for these), will come  ¹from Me; now I will also utter judgments against them.

Here he is coming up like clouds,
And his chariots like the whirlwind;
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us for we are devastated!

Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem,
That you may be saved.
How long will your evil thoughts
Lodge within you?

For a voice declares from Dan
And announces affliction from the hill country of Ephraim.

Make mention to the nations; yes,
Announce against Jerusalem.
Besiegers are coming from a distant land
And utter their voice against the cities of Judah.

Like those who watch over a field, they are against her all around
Because she has rebelled against Me, declares Jehovah.

Your way and your deeds
Have caused these things to happen to you.
This is your wickedness. Indeed it is bitter!
Indeed it reaches to your heart!

My bowels, my bowels; I am writhing.
Oh, the walls of my heart!
My heart is moaning within me;
I cannot be silent;
For you hear, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.

Destruction upon destruction is proclaimed,
For the whole land is devastated.
Suddenly my tents are devastated,
And my curtains in a moment.

How long will I see the standard,
And hear the sound of the trumpet?

For My people are foolish;
They do not know Me.
They are stupid children
And have no understanding.
They are wise to do evil,
But they do not know to do good.

I looked at the earth, and there it was, waste and emptiness;
And at the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked at the mountains, and there they were, shaking,
And all the hills were swaying.

I looked, and there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

I looked, and there was the fruitful land, a wilderness,
And all its cities were torn down
Before Jehovah, before His burning anger.

For thus says Jehovah,
The whole land will be a desolation,
But I will not make a full end;

For this the earth will mourn,
And the heavens above will be dark;
Because I have spoken, I have purposed;
And I have not repented, nor will I turn from it.

At the sound of horsemen and archers
Every city flees;
They go into the thickets
And climb up on the rocks.
Every city is forsaken,
And not even one inhabits them.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you are adorned with ornaments of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain do you beautify yourself;
Your lovers despise you;
They seek your life.

For I heard a cry like that of a woman in travail,
Anguish like that of a woman bringing forth her first child,
The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath;
She stretches out her hands, saying,
Woe is me,
For my soul is fainting before murderers.

 ¹Go to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem,
And look now and know,
And seek in her open squares
If you can find a man,
If there is anyone who executes justice,
Who seeks faithfulness;
And I will pardon her.

And although they say, As Jehovah lives,
Nevertheless they swear falsely.

O Jehovah, are not Your eyes upon faithfulness?
You have stricken them,
But they did not writhe;
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to turn.

Then I said, But they are the poor;
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of Jehovah,
The  ¹ordinance of their God.

I will go to the great
And speak with them;
Surely these know the way of Jehovah,
The ordinance of their God.
But together they both have broken the yoke;
They have torn off the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them;
A wolf of the  ¹deserts will destroy them.
A leopard is watching their cities;
Everyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces;
Because they multiplied their transgressions,
And their apostasies are great in number.

Why should I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery
And trooped to the house of harlots.

Like well-fed horses they roam about,
Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

Shall I not  ¹punish because of these things?
Declares Jehovah;
And on a nation such as this
Shall My soul not avenge itself?

Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not make a full end;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not Jehovah's.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me, declares Jehovah.

They have denied Jehovah
And have said, He is not;
And evil will not come upon us,
Nor will we see sword and famine;

And the prophets will become wind,
And  ¹the word is not in them;
Thus it will be done to them.

Therefore thus says Jehovah
The God of hosts:
Because  ¹they have spoken this word,
I am now making My words
A fire in your mouth,
And this people wood;
And it will consume them.

I am now bringing upon you
A nation from afar,
O house of Israel, declares Jehovah.
It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation;
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.

Their quiver is like an open grave;
All of them are mighty men.

And they will eat up your harvest and your bread;
They will eat up your sons and your daughters;
They will eat up your flocks and your herds;
They will eat up your vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities,
In which you trust.

Yet even in those days, declares Jehovah, I will not make a full end of you.

And when  ¹they say, Why has Jehovah our God done all these things to us? you shall say to them, As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Declare this in the house of Jacob,
And announce it in the house of Judah, saying,

Now hear this,
O people, who are foolish and without understanding,
Who have eyes but do not see,
Who have ears but do not hear:

Do you not fear Me, declares Jehovah;
Do you not tremble at My presence;
Who have set the sand as a boundary for the sea
By an eternal statute, so it cannot pass over it?
Although its waves toss, they cannot prevail;
Although they roar, they cannot pass over it.

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and have gone away.

And they do not say in their heart,
Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives us rain,
Both  ¹the early rain and the late rain, in its season,
Who preserves the appointed weeks of the harvest for us.

Your iniquities have turned these things away,
And your sins have withheld from you what is good.

For wicked men are found among My people;
They lie in wait like fowlers crouching;
They set a trap,
They catch men.

Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.

They are fat; they are sleek;
Indeed they surpass in deeds of wickedness;
They do not judge the cause,
The cause of the orphan, but they prosper;
And the right of the needy they do not judge.

Shall I not punish because of these things?
Declares Jehovah;
And on a nation such as this
Shall My soul not avenge itself?

An appalling and horrible thing
Has happened in the land:

The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own  ¹authority;
And My people love it this way.
But what will you do at the end of it?

Seek refuge, O children of Benjamin,
From the midst of Jerusalem;
And blow the trumpet in Tekoa
And raise up a signal on  ¹Beth-haccerem;
For evil looks down from the  ²north,
And great destruction.

The comely and delicate one,
The daughter of Zion, I will cut off.

Shepherds will come to her
With their flocks;
They will pitch tents against her all around;
They will feed each one in his place.

 ¹Prepare war against her;
Rise up, and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us, for the day has declined,
For the shadows of evening are lengthening.

Rise up, and let us go up at night
And destroy her palaces.

For thus says Jehovah of hosts,
Cut down her trees and build up
A mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished;
In her midst there is only oppression.

As a cistern keeps its waters fresh,
So she has kept her wickedness fresh.
Violence and destruction are heard in her;
Sickness and wounds are always before Me.

Be admonished, O Jerusalem,
Lest My desire for you depart,
Lest I make you a desolation,
An uninhabited land.

Thus says Jehovah of hosts,
They will thoroughly  ¹glean like a vine
The remnant of Israel;
Pass your hand again over the branches
Like a grape gatherer.

To whom shall I speak and testify,
That they may hear?
Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised,
And they are unable to listen.
See, the word of Jehovah has become a reproach to them;
They have no delight in it.

Yet I am full of the wrath of Jehovah;
I am weary of holding it in.
Pour it out upon the children in the street
And upon the assembly of the young men together;
For even the husband with the wife will be taken;
The old man, with the one who is full of days.

And their houses will be turned over to others,
Fields and wives together;
For I will stretch out My hand
Over the inhabitants of the land,
Declares Jehovah.

For from the least of them to the greatest of them,
Everyone is wresting unjust gain;
And from the prophet to the priest,
Everyone is dealing falsely.

And they have healed
The brokenness of My people slightly,
Saying, Peace, peace;
Although there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
They were not at all ashamed;
They did not even know to blush.
Therefore they will fall with those who fall;
At the time I punish them, they will stumble,
Says Jehovah.

Thus says Jehovah,
Stand by the ways and see,
And ask for the ancient paths;
Ask where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, We will not walk in it.

So I set watchmen over you, saying,
Listen to the sound of the trumpet.
But they said, We will not listen.

Therefore hear, O nations,
And understand, O assembly,
What I will do to them.

Listen, O earth; I am now bringing evil
On this people,
The fruit of their thoughts;
Because they have not listened to My words,
And they have also rejected My law.

For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba,
And sweet cane from a distant land?
You're burnt offerings are not acceptable,
And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.

Therefore thus says Jehovah,
I am now laying before this people stumbling blocks,
And fathers and sons together
Will stumble against them;
A neighbor and his friend will perish.

Thus says Jehovah,
See, a people is coming from the land of the north,
And a great nation is stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.

They grasp bow and spear;
They are cruel and have no mercy;
Their voice roars like the sea;
And they ride upon horses,
Set in array as a man for battle
Against you, O daughter of Zion.

We have heard its report;
Our hands are feeble;
Distress has seized us,
Pain like a woman in childbirth.

Do not go out into the field,
And do not walk on the road;
For the enemy has a sword;
Terror is on every side.

O daughter of my people, gird yourself in sackcloth
And roll in ashes;
Mourn as for an only son,
A most bitter wailing;
For suddenly the destroyer
Will come upon us.

I have set you as a trier among My people, as a fortress,
That you may know and try their way.

All of them are most rebellious,
Going about as slanderers;
They are bronze and iron;
All of them act corruptly.

The bellows are burned;
The lead is consumed by the fire;
The refining continues in vain,
For the wicked are not removed.

Men will call them rejected silver,
Because Jehovah has rejected them.