LXX2012(i)
1 Strengthen yourselves, you⌃ children of Benjamin, [to flee] out of the midst of Jerusalem, and sound an alarm with the trumpet in Thecue, and set up a signal over Baethacharma: for evil threatens from the north, and a great destruction is coming.
2 And [your] pride, O daughter of Sion, shall be taken away.
3 The shepherds and their flocks shall come to her; and they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about, and shall feed [their flocks] each with his hand.
4 Prepare yourselves for war against her; rise up, and let us go up against her at noon. Woe to us! for the day has gone down, for the shadows of the day fail.
5 Rise, and let us go up against her by night, and destroy her foundations.
6 For thus says the Lord, Hew down her trees, array a numerous force against Jerusalem. O false city; [there is] all oppression in her.
7 As a cistern cools water, so her wickedness cools her, ungodliness and misery shall be heard in her, [as] continually before her.
8 You shall be chastened, O Jerusalem, with pain and the scourge, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you a desert land, which shall not be inhabited.
9 For thus says the Lord, Glean, glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel: turn back [your hands] as a grape-gatherer to his basket.
10 To whom shall I speak, and testify, that he may listen? behold, your ears are uncircumcised, and they shall not be able to hear: behold, the word of the Lord is become to them a reproach, they will not at all desire it.
11 And I allowed my wrath to come to full, yet I kept [it] in, and did not utterly destroy them: I will pour it out on the children without, and on the assembly of young men together: for man and woman shall be taken together, the old man with him that is full of days.
12 And their houses shall be turned to others, [with] their fields and their wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord.
13 For from the least of them even to the greatest they have all committed iniquity; from the priest even to the false prophet they have all wrought falsely.
14 And they healed the breach of my people [imperfectly], making light [of it], and saying, Peace, peace, and where is peace?
15 They were ashamed because they failed; yet they were not ashamed as those who are [truly] ashamed, and they knew not their own disgrace: therefore shall they [utterly] fall when they do fall, and in the time of visitation shall they perish, said the Lord.
16 Thus says the Lord, Stand you⌃ in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths of the Lord; and see what is the good way, and walk in it, and you⌃ shall find purification for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [in them].
17 I have set watchmen over you, [saying], Hear you⌃ the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hear [it].
18 Therefore have the nations heard, and they that feed their flocks.
19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evils upon this people, [even] the fruit of their rebellions; for they have not heeded my words, and they have rejected my law.
20 Therefore do you⌃ bring me frankincense from Saba, and cinnamon from a land afar off? your whole burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not been pleasant to me.
21 Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I [will] bring weakness upon this people, and the fathers and sons shall be weak together; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
22 Thus says the Lord, Behold, a people comes from the north, and nations shall be stirred up from the end of the earth.
23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; [the people] is fierce, and will have no mercy; their voice is as the roaring sea; they shall array themselves for war against you as fire on horses and chariots, O daughter of Sion.
24 We have heard the report of them: our hands are weakened: anguish has seized us, the pangs as of a woman in travail.
25 Go not forth into the field, and walk not in the ways; for the sword of the enemy lingers round about.
26 O daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth: sprinkle [yourself] with ashes; make for yourself pitiable lamentation, [as] the mourning for a beloved [son]: for misery will come suddenly upon you.
27 I have caused you to be tried among tried nations, and you shall know me when I have tried their way.
28 [They are] all disobedient, walking perversely: [they are] brass and iron; they are all corrupted.
29 The bellows have failed from the fire, the lead has failed: the silversmith works at his trade in vain; their wickedness is not consumed.
30 Call you⌃ them reprobate silver, because the Lord has rejected them.