Lamentations Cross References - LEB

¹ How desolate the city sits that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations! Like a woman of nobility in the provinces, she has become a forced laborer. ² She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies. ³ Judah has gone into exile with misery and under hard servitude; she lives among the nations, she has not found a resting place; all her pursuers have overtaken her amidst her distress. ⁴ The roads of Zion are mourning because no one comes to the festival. All her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young women are worried, and she herself suffers bitterly. ⁵ Her foes have become her _⌊master_⌋,* her enemies are at ease; Yahweh has made her suffer because of the greatness of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captive before the foe. ⁶ All her majesty has gone away from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like young stags that have not found pasture; they have gone away without strength, before the pursuer. ⁷ Jerusalem remembers the days of her misery and wanderings, all her treasures that were from the days of long ago. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, there was no one helping her; the enemies saw her, they mocked at her destruction. ⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously, thus she became an objection of derision; all those who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away. ⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she did not remember her future, she has descended beyond understanding, there is no comforter for her. See, O Yahweh, my persecution! My enemy has been made great! ¹⁰ The enemy has stretched out his hand over all her treasures; for she has seen the nations, they entered her sanctuary, those whom you commanded not to enter in your assembly. ¹¹ All her people groan, they are searching for bread. They give their treasures for food, to bring back life. See, O Yahweh, and look, how I am despised. ¹² Is it nothing to you, _⌊all who pass by_⌋?* Look and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow,* which was dealt to me, which Yahweh inflicted on the _⌊day of his wrath_⌋.* ¹³ From heaven he sent fire, into my bones he let it descend. He spread out a net for my feet; he turned me back, he gave me devastation, fainting all day. ¹⁴ My rebellion was bound as a yoke, with his hand it was fastened together; it was put on my neck and caused my strength to fail. The Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. ¹⁵ The Lord has rejected all my mighty ones in my midst. He called an assembly against me, to crush my young men; like in a wine press, the Lord has trodden on the virgin daughter of Judah. ¹⁶ For these things, I am weeping, _⌊my eyes flow with tears_⌋;* because a comforter is far from me, one to restore my life. My sons are desolate because the enemy has prevailed. ¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands; there is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded against Jacob, that those surrounding him* should be his enemies; Jerusalem has become a defilement among them. ¹⁸ Yahweh is righteous; I have rebelled against _⌊his word_⌋.* Please hear, all the nations, And see my pain; My young women* and young men went into captivity. ¹⁹ I have called to my lovers, they themselves deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city when they sought food for themselves to revive their life.* ²⁰ See, O Yahweh, that _⌊I am in distress_⌋;* _⌊my stomach_⌋* is in torment, my heart has turned inside me because I have certainly rebelled. From outside a sword brings bereavement, inside the house it is like death. ²¹ They hear that I was groaning; there is no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring that day that you have proclaimed,* And let them be like me. ²² Let all their evil come before you; and deal with them just as you have dealt with me because of all my crimes; for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.

²¹ * Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River* to the land of the Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt, who were bringing tribute and were serving Solomon all the days of his life.

³³ Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁵ The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver _⌊to meet the demands of Pharaoh_⌋.* Each according to assessment, he exacted payment of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco.

²⁶ And he ruled over all the kings from the River* to the land of the Philistines, to the boundary of Egypt.

²⁰ Mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem, governing all the province Beyond the River, to whom tribute, duty, and tax has been given.

⁴ And there were those who were saying, "We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king.

³⁷ Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have given over us because of our sins, and they are ruling over our dead bodies and our livestock at their pleasure. We are in great trouble.

⁴ where the tribes go up, the tribes of Yah* as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of Yahweh.

²⁶ And her* gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall be banished; she shall sit upon the ground.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn! You are cut down to the ground, conqueror of nations!

² _⌊noisy_⌋,* tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are they dead from battle.

¹ Come down and sit on the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of Chaldea! For _⌊they shall no longer call_⌋* you tender and delicate. ² Take the pair of mill stones and grind flour! Uncover your veil, strip off your skirt, uncover your thigh, pass through the rivers! ³ Your nakedness shall be exposed; indeed, your shame shall become visible. I will take vengeance and I will not _⌊spare_⌋* a person. ⁴ Our redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the holy one of Israel. ⁵ Sit silently and go into the darkness, daughter of Chaldea, for _⌊they shall no longer call_⌋* you mistress of kingdoms. ⁶ I was angry with my people; I profaned my inheritance, and I gave them into your hand. You did not _⌊give_⌋* them mercy; on the aged you made your yoke very heavy. ⁷ And you said, "I shall be an eternal mistress forever!" You did not set these things upon your heart; you did not remember its end. ⁸ Therefore now hear this, luxuriant one who sits* in security, who says* in her heart, "I am, and besides me there is no one. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know the loss of children." ⁹ And these two shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood shall come on you _⌊completely_⌋,* in spite of your many sorceries, in spite of the power of your great enchantments. ¹⁰ And you felt secure in your wickedness; you said, "_⌊No one_⌋* sees* me." Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and besides me there is no one." ¹¹ And evil shall come upon you, you will not know; it will be on the lookout for her. And disaster shall fall upon you; you will not be able to _⌊avert_⌋* it. And ruin shall come on you suddenly; you do not know. ¹² Stand, now, in your enchantments, and in your many sorceries with which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may be able to benefit; perhaps you may _⌊scare away_⌋.* ¹³ You struggle with your many consultations;* let them stand, now, and save you— those who see the stars, divide the _⌊celestial sphere_⌋,* who inform by new moons— from those things that are coming upon you. ¹⁴ Look! They are like stubble; the fire burns them completely. They cannot deliver _⌊themselves_⌋* from the _⌊power_⌋* of the flame; there is no coal _⌊for warming oneself_⌋,* no fire before which to sit. ¹⁵ So are to you those with whom you have labored, your traders from your youth. They wander, each to his side; there is no one who can save you.

⁵ The Lord Yahweh has opened an ear for me, and I, I was not rebellious. I did not turn backwards;

² Shake yourself free from the dust! Rise up; sit, Jerusalem! Free yourselves from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!

⁷ How delightful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns as a king."

⁴ You must not fear, for you will not be ashamed, and you must not be confounded, for you will not feel abashed, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.

¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem as heaps of ruins, a lair of jackals, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, _⌊without inhabitants_⌋.*

⁹ And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, _⌊saying_⌋,* "You must not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.

²³ How the blacksmith's hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!

¹ How, _⌊in his anger_⌋,* the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud! He has thrown down from heavens to earth the splendor of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of _⌊his anger_⌋.*

¹⁰ They sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent. They cast dust on their head, they have put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their head down to the ground.

¹ How the gold has grown dim, the pure gold has changed. The stones of holiness are scattered at the head of every street.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁶ And all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, and they will remove their robes, and their _⌊beautiful garments_⌋* of finished cloth they will take off. With terror they will be clothed, and on the ground they will sit, and they will tremble _⌊continually_⌋,* and they will be appalled over you.

¹⁵ This is the city of rejoicing that lived securely; the one saying in her heart, "_⌊I am, and there is none besides me_⌋."* How she has become a desolation, a lair for wild animals! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

⁴ Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the public squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand* _⌊because of great age_⌋.* ⁵ And the public squares of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its public squares.'

⁷ As much as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, give to her so much torment and mourning, because in her heart she said, 'I sit as a queen, and am not a widow, and I will never see mourning!'

¹⁶ saying,
"Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen and purple cloth and scarlet cloth, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, ¹⁷ because in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!"
And every shipmaster and _⌊every seafarer_⌋* and sailors and all those who labor on the sea stood _⌊far off_⌋*

¹⁵ My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed; like a streambed of wadis* they flow away,

³ So _⌊I had to inherit_⌋* months of worthlessness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

¹³ "He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only* turned aside from me. ¹⁴ My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.

⁶ I am weary with my groaning; _⌊I flood_⌋* my bed every night. With my tears _⌊I drench_⌋* my couch.

¹¹ Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace, especially to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me.

² In the day I have trouble, I seek* the Lord. At night my hand stretches out _⌊continually_⌋;* my soul refuses to be comforted. ³ I remember God and I groan loudly; I meditate and my spirit grows faint. ⁴ You hold open my eyelids. I am troubled and cannot speak. ⁵ I think about the days from long ago, the years of ancient times. ⁶ I remember my song in the night. With my heart I meditate, and my spirit searches to understand.

⁷ All the brothers of the poor, if they hate him, how much more will his friends keep away from him. He pursues them with words, and they are gone.*

¹⁸ There is no one who guides her among* all the children she has borne, and there is no one who grasps her by the hand among* all the children she raised. ¹⁹ Two things here have happened to you—who will _⌊show sympathy_⌋* for you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword—who will comfort you?

¹ A _⌊saying_⌋:* 'Look, if a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him _⌊and she becomes another man's wife_⌋,* will he return to her again?' Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, would you now return to me?" _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

³⁰ And you, O devastated one, what do you do, that you put on crimson, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers reject you; they seek your life.

¹ * _⌊Oh that my head were waters_⌋,* and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people.

¹⁷ Thus says Yahweh of hosts:
"Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come, and for the skillful women, so that they come. ¹⁸ And let them hasten, and let them lift up wailing over us, so that our eyes may melt with tears, and our eyelids may flow with water. ¹⁹ For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How we are devastated! We are very ashamed because we have left the land, because they have overthrown our dwelling places.'

¹⁷ But if you will not listen to it, my inner self* will weep in secret places, because of _⌊the presence of_⌋* your pride. And my eyes* will weep bitterly, and they will melt in tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.

²⁰ Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and in Bashan lift up your voice, and cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are shattered. ²¹ I spoke to you _⌊in the times you were secure_⌋,* and you said, 'I will not listen!' This was your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed my voice. ²² All your shepherds will shepherd the wind, and your lovers will go into captivity. Yes, then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.

¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not care for you. I have struck you with the blow of an enemy, the punishment of the cruel, because of the greatness of your guilt, your sins are numerous.

⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she did not remember her future, she has descended beyond understanding, there is no comforter for her. See, O Yahweh, my persecution! My enemy has been made great!

¹⁶ For these things, I am weeping, _⌊my eyes flow with tears_⌋;* because a comforter is far from me, one to restore my life. My sons are desolate because the enemy has prevailed. ¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands; there is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded against Jacob, that those surrounding him* should be his enemies; Jerusalem has become a defilement among them.

¹⁹ I have called to my lovers, they themselves deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city when they sought food for themselves to revive their life.*

²¹ They hear that I was groaning; there is no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring that day that you have proclaimed,* And let them be like me.

¹¹ My eyes have _⌊spent all their tears_⌋;* _⌊my stomach_⌋* is in torment, _⌊my heart_⌋* is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because child and babe faint in the public squares of a city.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord, "O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a river; day and night, do not give yourself relief, do not give your eyes rest. ¹⁹ "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord. Lift to him your hands, for the life of your children, who faint in starvation, at the head of all streets."

³⁷ therefore, look! I am gathering all of your lovers _⌊whom you were pleased about_⌋,* and all of whom you loved in addition to all of whom you hated, and I will gather them against you from _⌊everywhere_⌋,* and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all of your nakedness.

²² "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am stirring up your lovers against you concerning whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around: ²³ the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* along with them, _⌊handsome young men_⌋,* governors and prefects, all of them adjutants* _⌊and excellent horsemen_⌋.* ²⁴ And they will come against you with an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd* of peoples; they will set themselves against you from all around with large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give _⌊before them_⌋* judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments. ²⁵ And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and _⌊those who are left_⌋,* they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and _⌊your remnant_⌋* will be consumed by fire.

⁷ Then she will pursue _⌊her lovers_⌋,* but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find them; and she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband because it was better for me then than now."

⁵ Do not put faith in a friend; put no trust in a close friend. Guard the doorways of your mouth from the one who lies in your lap.

¹³ These have one opinion, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.

¹⁶ And the ten horns that you saw and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.

³⁶ As for* the ones who remain among you, I will bring* fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight _⌊before_⌋* a sword, and they shall fall, but* there shall not be a pursuer. ³⁷ And they shall stumble over _⌊one another_⌋* as _⌊from before_⌋* a sword, but* there shall not be a pursuer; and _⌊you shall have no resistance_⌋* _⌊before_⌋* your enemies. ³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you. ³⁹ And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors,* they shall decay with them.

⁶⁴ And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth up to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor* your ancestors,* gods of wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among these nations you shall not find rest, and there shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes* and a languishing of your inner self.* ⁶⁶ And _⌊your life shall hang in doubt before you_⌋,* and you shall be startled* night and day, and you shall not be confident of your life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, '_⌊If only it was evening_⌋!'* and in the evening you shall say '_⌊If only it was morning_⌋!'* because of the dread of your heart that you shall feel, and because of the sight of your eyes that you shall see.

¹⁴ He deported all of Jerusalem: all of the commanders, ten thousand of the skilled warriors, and the artisans; no one was left over except the poorest of the people of the land. ¹⁵ He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king, the wives of the king, his court officials, and the citizenry of the land he caused to go into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

¹¹ The remainder of the people left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard deported.

²¹ Then the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath; thus Judah was removed from its land.

²⁰ And he took _⌊those who escaped the sword_⌋* to Babylon. And they became servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹ to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

¹⁹ The towns of the Negev are shut up, and there is no one who opens them.* All of Judah is deported; it is deported in completeness.

¹⁶ Look, I am sending for many fishermen,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'and they will fish them out, and _⌊afterward_⌋* I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs.

⁹ And I will make them as a terror, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, as a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them.

⁹ Then the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those deserting who had deserted to him, and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,* deported to Babylon.

⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

¹⁵ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard* deported some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the craftsmen.

²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah left from its land. ²⁸ This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Judeans; ²⁹ in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons* from Jerusalem; ³⁰ in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,* deported seven hundred and forty-five Judean persons;* there were four thousand six hundred persons* in all.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has ruined and broken her bars, her kings and its princes are among the nations; there is no more law.* Also, her prophets have not found a revelation from Yahweh.

¹⁸ They hunted our steps, from walking in our streets; our end has come near, _⌊our days are finished_⌋,* our end has come. ¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert.

¹² A third of you will die because of the plague, and because of the famine they will perish in the midst of you, and a third will fall through the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every direction of the wind, and I will draw the sword behind them.

¹ I saw my Lord standing by the altar and he said, "Strike the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, and shatter them on the head of all of them, and I will kill the rest of them with the sword. A fugitive belonging to them will not run away, and a survivor belonging to them will not escape. ² If they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will take them, and even if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. ³ And even if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search and will take them, and even if they hide from before my eyes at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the sea serpent and it will bite them. ⁴ And even if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword and it will kill them, and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good."

⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes;* they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and _⌊few men are left_⌋.*

⁹ Women who are at ease, rise up; hear my voice! Carefree daughters, listen to my word! ¹⁰ _⌊In a year_⌋* you will tremble, carefree ones,
for the vintage will come to an end; the harvest will not come. ¹¹ Tremble, you who are at ease; tremble, carefree ones; strip, and strip yourself, and gird yourself on your loins,* ¹² mourning over breasts, over fields of delight, over the fruitful vine, ¹³ over the soil of my people. It goes up in thorns* and briers,* indeed over all of the houses of joy in the jubilant city. ¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken, the _⌊crowded city_⌋* deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become* a cave forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture _⌊for_⌋* flocks.

²² Listen, news:* Look, it is coming, a great roar from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.

² "Judah mourns, and her gates languish, they are in mourning on the ground, and the cry of lament of Jerusalem goes up.

¹⁰ "Thus says Yahweh: 'Again will be heard in this place, of which you are saying, "It is a waste, _⌊without_⌋* people and _⌊without_⌋* animals,"* in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, _⌊without_⌋* people and _⌊without_⌋* inhabitants* and _⌊without_⌋* animals,* ¹¹ the voice of jubilation, and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voices* of those who say, "Praise Yahweh of hosts, for Yahweh is good, for his loyal love is _⌊forever_⌋,"* the voices of those who bring thank offerings* to the house of Yahweh, for I will restore the fortunes* of the land as in the beginning,' says Yahweh. ¹² Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Again there will be in this waste place, _⌊without_⌋* people and animals,* and in all its towns, pasture for shepherds allowing their flock to lie down.

¹¹ All her people groan, they are searching for bread. They give their treasures for food, to bring back life. See, O Yahweh, and look, how I am despised. ¹² Is it nothing to you, _⌊all who pass by_⌋?* Look and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow,* which was dealt to me, which Yahweh inflicted on the _⌊day of his wrath_⌋.*

¹⁸ Yahweh is righteous; I have rebelled against _⌊his word_⌋.* Please hear, all the nations, And see my pain; My young women* and young men went into captivity. ¹⁹ I have called to my lovers, they themselves deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city when they sought food for themselves to revive their life.* ²⁰ See, O Yahweh, that _⌊I am in distress_⌋;* _⌊my stomach_⌋* is in torment, my heart has turned inside me because I have certainly rebelled. From outside a sword brings bereavement, inside the house it is like death.

⁶ He has broken down _⌊his dwelling_⌋* place like the garden; he has ruined his appointed feasts; Yahweh has made them forget in Zion _⌊festival_⌋* and Sabbath, and he has despised in his anger king and priest. ⁷ The Lord has rejected his altar; he has rejected his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of its citadel fortresses.* They have cried out in the house of Yahweh like a day of an appointed feast.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has ruined and broken her bars, her kings and its princes are among the nations; there is no more law.* Also, her prophets have not found a revelation from Yahweh. ¹⁰ They sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent. They cast dust on their head, they have put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their head down to the ground. ¹¹ My eyes have _⌊spent all their tears_⌋;* _⌊my stomach_⌋* is in torment, _⌊my heart_⌋* is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because child and babe faint in the public squares of a city.

¹⁹ "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord. Lift to him your hands, for the life of your children, who faint in starvation, at the head of all streets." ²⁰ See, Yahweh, and take note! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their young children of tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ They lie in the soil of the streets, young and old; my young women* and young men, they have fallen by the sword; you have slain on the day of _⌊your anger_⌋,* you have slaughtered and not shown mercy.

¹³ Young men must carry a hand-mill and boys stumble under the wood.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ The offering and libation are withheld from the house* of Yahweh. The priests mourn, the ministers of Yahweh. ¹⁰ The field is destroyed; the earth mourns because the grain is destroyed, the new wine dries up, the olive oil languishes. ¹¹ Be ashamed, farmers; Wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and over the barley, because the harvest of the field is ruined. ¹² The vine withers and the fig tree droops. The pomegranate tree, and also the palm tree, the apple tree —all the trees of the field—are dried up. Indeed, joy is dried up among the sons of men. ¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, O priests! Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because offering and libation are withheld from the house of your God.

¹² Therefore on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble, and _⌊the temple mount_⌋* as a high place in a forest.

¹⁵ and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self* abhors my regulations, to not carry out* all my commands by your breaking my covenant, ¹⁶ I _⌊in turn_⌋* will do this to you: then* I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed _⌊in vain_⌋,* and your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated _⌊before_⌋* your enemies; and your haters shall rule over you, and you shall flee away, but* there shall not be _⌊anybody who is pursuing_⌋* you. ¹⁸ " 'And if in spite of these things you do not listen to me, then* I will continue to discipline you seven times for your sins. ¹⁹ And I will break the pride of your strength; and I will make your heaven like iron* and your land like copper. ²⁰ And your strength shall be consumed _⌊in vain_⌋;* and your land shall not give its produce, and the land's trees shall not give their fruit. ²¹ " 'And if you go against me in hostility and you are not willing to listen to me, then* I will add a plague onto you seven times according to your sins. ²² And I will send _⌊wild animals_⌋* out among you, and they shall make you childless, and they shall cut down your domestic animals, and they shall make you fewer; and your roads shall be desolate. ²³ " 'And if you do not accept correction from* me through these things, but* you go against me in hostility, ²⁴ then* I myself* will also go against you in hostility, and I myself* also will strike you seven times for your sins. ²⁵ And I will bring upon you a sword that seeks vengeance for the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities; and I will send a plague in your midst, and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy. ²⁶ At my breaking the _⌊supply_⌋* of bread* for you, then* ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall return your bread by weight; and you shall eat it, and you shall not be satisfied. ²⁷ " 'And if through this you do not listen to me and you go against me in hostility, ²⁸ then* I will go against you in hostile anger, and also* I myself* will discipline you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ And you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. ³⁰ And I will destroy your high places, and I will cut down your incense altars, and I will place your corpses on your idols' corpses; and my inner self* shall abhor you. ³¹ And I will lay your cities in ruins, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries; and I shall not smell your sacrifices'* appeasing fragrance. ³² And I myself* will lay waste the land, and your enemies who are living in it shall be appalled over it. ³³ And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword behind you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a ruin. ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest for the time* that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for* the ones who remain among you, I will bring* fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight _⌊before_⌋* a sword, and they shall fall, but* there shall not be a pursuer. ³⁷ And they shall stumble over _⌊one another_⌋* as _⌊from before_⌋* a sword, but* there shall not be a pursuer; and _⌊you shall have no resistance_⌋* _⌊before_⌋* your enemies. ³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you. ³⁹ And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors,* they shall decay with them. ⁴⁰ " 'But* when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors* in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— ⁴¹ I myself* also* went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, ⁴² I will remember* my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves* must pay for their guilt, _⌊simply because_⌋* they rejected my regulations, and their inner self* abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ And _⌊in spite of_⌋* this, _⌊when they are_⌋* in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. ⁴⁵ And I will remember the first covenant for them*—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt _⌊in the sight of_⌋* the nations _⌊to be their God_⌋.* I am Yahweh.'" ⁴⁶ These are the rules and the regulations and the laws that Yahweh gave between himself and the _⌊Israelites_⌋* on _⌊Mount Sinai_⌋* _⌊through_⌋* Moses.

²⁵ "When you have had children and _⌊grandchildren_⌋* and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I call* to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; _⌊you will not live long on it_⌋,* but you will be completely destroyed. ²⁷ And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left _⌊few in number_⌋* among the nations _⌊to where Yahweh will lead you_⌋.*

¹⁵ "_⌊And then_⌋* if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God _⌊by diligently observing_⌋* all of his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you _⌊today_⌋,* then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you: ¹⁶ "You shall* be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field. ¹⁷ "Your basket shall be cursed and your kneading trough. ¹⁸ "The fruit of your womb shall be cursed and the fruit of you ground, the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock. ¹⁹ "You shall be cursed _⌊when you come in_⌋,* and you shall be cursed _⌊when you go out_⌋.* ²⁰ "Yahweh will send upon you* the curse,* the panic,* and the threat* _⌊in everything that you undertake_⌋,* _⌊until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly_⌋* _⌊because of_⌋* the evil of your deeds in that* you have forsaken me. ²¹ Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you _⌊until it consumes you_⌋* from the land that you are going to,* to take possession of it. ²² Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword* and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you _⌊until you perish_⌋.* ²³ And your heavens that are over your heads shall be like bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be like iron. ²⁴ Yahweh will change the rain of your land to fine dust and to sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you _⌊until you are destroyed_⌋.* ²⁵ "Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated _⌊before_⌋* your enemies; on one road you shall go _⌊against_⌋* them,* but you will flee on seven roads _⌊before_⌋* them,* and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be _⌊anyone to frighten them away_⌋.* ²⁷ "Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with _⌊the skin rash that cannot be healed_⌋.* ²⁸ Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed in finding your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed _⌊all the time_⌋,* and there will not be _⌊anyone who will rescue you_⌋. * ³⁰ You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep* with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat it; your donkey shall be stolen right _⌊before you_⌋,* and it shall not be returned to you; your sheep and your goats shall be given to your enemies, and _⌊there shall not be anyone who rescues you_⌋.* ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and _⌊you will be looking on_⌋* _⌊longingly_⌋* for* them all day, _⌊but you will be powerless to do anything_⌋.* ³³ A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed _⌊for the rest of your lives_⌋.* ³⁴ You shall become mad _⌊because of what your eyes shall see_⌋.* ³⁵ Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which _⌊you will not be able to be healed_⌋,* from the sole of your foot and up to your crown. ³⁶ Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors* have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there. ³⁸ "You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress* them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.* ⁴⁰ There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives* shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be _⌊yours_⌋,* for they shall go into captivity. ⁴² The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ⁴³ The alien that is in your midst shall ascend over you, higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, but you shall be the tail. ⁴⁵ "And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you _⌊until you are destroyed_⌋,* because _⌊you did not listen_⌋* to the voice of Yahweh your God, _⌊by observing_⌋* his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring _⌊forever_⌋.* ⁴⁷ "_⌊Because_⌋* of the fact that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place* a yoke of iron on your neck _⌊until he has destroyed you_⌋.* ⁴⁹ Yahweh will raise up against you a nation from far off, from the end of the earth, attacking as the eagle swoops down, _⌊a nation whose language you will not understand_⌋,* ⁵⁰ _⌊a grim-faced nation_⌋* _⌊who does not show respect_⌋* to the old and the young and does not show pity. ⁵¹ And it* shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground _⌊until you are destroyed_⌋,* and who will not leave for you any grain, wine, and olive oil, _⌊calves of your herds_⌋,* and _⌊lambs of_⌋* your flock _⌊until it has destroyed you_⌋.* ⁵² And it shall besiege you in all your towns _⌊until your high and fortified walls fall_⌋,* which you are trusting in* _⌊throughout your land_⌋;* and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you. ⁵³ And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave to you, _⌊during the siege and during the distress_⌋* your enemy inflicts upon you. ⁵⁴ The most refined and the very sensitive* man among you _⌊shall be mean with his brother_⌋* and _⌊against his beloved wife_⌋* and against the rest* of his children that he has left over, ⁵⁵ _⌊by refraining from giving_⌋* to even one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because there is not anything that is left over for him _⌊during the siege and distress_⌋* that your enemy inflicts upon you. ⁵⁶ The most refined and the most delicate woman among you, who shall* not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being so delicate and from such gentleness, _⌊shall be mean to her beloved husband_⌋* and against her son and against her daughter, ⁵⁷ and even concerning her afterbirth _⌊that goes out_⌋* from between her feet and also concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret _⌊during the siege and during the distress_⌋* that your enemy inflicts upon her in your _⌊towns_⌋.* ⁵⁸ "If _⌊you do not diligently observe_⌋* all the words of this law written in this scroll by revering this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God, ⁵⁹ then Yahweh shall overwhelm you with your plagues and the plagues of your offspring, severe plagues and lasting illnesses, grievous and enduring. ⁶⁰ And he shall bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt concerning which _⌊you were in dread_⌋* _⌊because of them_⌋.* ⁶¹ Also any illness and any plague* that is not written in the scroll of this law, he shall bring them, Yahweh, upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² And you shall remain _⌊only a few people_⌋* in place of the fact you were formerly as the stars of heaven as far as number is concerned, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. ⁶³ _⌊And then_⌋* as Yahweh delighted over you _⌊to make you prosperous_⌋* to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you* and to destroy you, and so you shall be plucked from the land that you are going there to take possession of it. ⁶⁴ And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth up to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor* your ancestors,* gods of wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among these nations you shall not find rest, and there shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes* and a languishing of your inner self.* ⁶⁶ And _⌊your life shall hang in doubt before you_⌋,* and you shall be startled* night and day, and you shall not be confident of your life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, '_⌊If only it was evening_⌋!'* and in the evening you shall say '_⌊If only it was morning_⌋!'* because of the dread of your heart that you shall feel, and because of the sight of your eyes that you shall see. ⁶⁸ And Yahweh shall bring you back to Egypt in ships by the route that I _⌊promised_⌋* to you that '_⌊You shall not see it again_⌋!'* And you shall sell yourself there to your enemies as slaves and as female slaves, but there will not be a buyer."

¹⁸ so that _⌊there is not_⌋* among you a man or a woman or a clan or a tribe _⌊whose heart_⌋* turns _⌊today_⌋* from being with Yahweh our God to go to serve the gods of these nations, so that there is not among you a root sprouting poison and wormwood. ¹⁹ And then when he hears the words of this oath, then* _⌊he will assure himself_⌋* in his heart, _⌊saying_⌋,* '_⌊Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart_⌋,'* thereby destroying the well-watered land along with the parched.* ²⁰ Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, for by then the anger of Yahweh will smoke, and his passion against that man and all the curses written in this scroll will descend on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And Yahweh will single him out for calamity out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in the scroll of this law. ²² "And the next generation, that is, your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a distant land, when* they will see the plagues of that land and its diseases that Yahweh has inflicted upon it, will say, ²³ 'All its land is brimstone and salt left by fire, _⌊none of its land will be sown_⌋,* and it will not make plants sprout out and it will not grow any vegetation; it is as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adman and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overturned in his anger and in his wrath.' ²⁴ And all the nations will say, '_⌊Why_⌋* has Yahweh done _⌊such a thing_⌋* to this land? What caused the fierceness of this great anger?' ²⁵ And they will say,* 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,* which he _⌊made_⌋* with them _⌊when he brought them out_⌋* from the land of Egypt. ²⁶ And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know them and he* had not allotted to them. ²⁷ So _⌊the anger of Yahweh was kindled_⌋* against that land to bring upon it all the curses written in this scroll, ²⁸ and Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in wrath and in great fury, and he cast them into another land, _⌊just as it is today_⌋.'*

¹⁶ And Yahweh said to Moses, "Look, you are about to lie down with your ancestors,* and this people will arise and they* will play the prostitute after _⌊the foreign gods_⌋* of the land _⌊to which they are going_⌋.* ¹⁷ And _⌊my anger shall flare up against them_⌋* on that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they* shall become as prey, and disasters and troubles shall find* them,* and they* shall say on that day, 'Is it not because our* God is not in our* midst that these disasters have found* us?'* ¹⁸ But I will certainly hide my face on that day, because of all of the evil that they* did because they* turned to other gods.

²⁹ For I know that after my death you will certainly act corruptly, and you will turn aside from the way that I have commanded you, and the disaster in the future days will befall you, because you will do evil* in the eyes of Yahweh, _⌊provoking him with the work of your hands_⌋."*

¹⁵ And Jeshurun grew fat, and he kicked; you grew fat, you bloated, and you became obstinate; and he abandoned God, his maker, and he scoffed at the rock of his salvation. ¹⁶ They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom* they had not known, new gods who* came from recent times; _⌊their ancestors had not known them_⌋.* ¹⁸ The rock who* bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth. ¹⁹ Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. ²⁰ So he said, 'I will hide my face from them; I will see what will be their end, for they are a generation of perversity, _⌊children in whom there is no faithfulness_⌋.* ²¹ They annoyed me with what is not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them. ²² For a fire was kindled* by my anger, and it burned _⌊up to the depths of Sheol_⌋,* and it devoured the earth and its produce, and it set afire the foundation of the mountains. ²³ I will heap disasters upon them; my arrows I will spend on them. ²⁴ They will become weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with the poison of the creeping things in the dust; ²⁵ From outside her boundaries the sword will make her childless, and from inside, terror; both for the young man and also the young woman, the infant along with the gray-headed man. ²⁶ I thought, "I will wipe them out; _⌊I will make people forget they ever existed_⌋."* ²⁷ If I had not feared a provocation of the enemy, lest their foes might misunderstand, * lest they should say, * "Our hand is _⌊triumphant_⌋,* and Yahweh did not do all this." '

¹⁴ All the leaders of the priests and the people likewise increased in unfaithfulness according to all the detestable things of the nations. And they polluted the house of Yahweh that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,* had repeatedly and persistently sent to them by the hand of his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they were mocking the messengers of God and despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of Yahweh rose against his people until there was no remedy.

³³ You are righteous in everything that has come on us, for you dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors* did not keep your law* and did not listen to your commandments and statutes that you declared to them.

⁶ You have made us an object of strife to our neighbors, and our enemies mock among themselves.

⁴² You have raised the right hand* of his adversaries. You have made all his enemies rejoice.

⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger, and we hasten off* by your wrath. ⁸ You have put our iniquities before you, our hidden sins into the light of your countenance.

¹⁸ _⌊Your holy people_⌋* took possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.

³ O Yahweh, do not your eyes look for honesty? You have struck them, but they felt no pain, you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, they have refused to turn back. ⁴ Then I said, "They are just simple people, they are foolish, for they know not the way of Yahweh, the law* of their God. ⁵ Let me go to the great, and let me speak with them, for they know the way of Yahweh, the law* of their God." However, they together have broken the yoke, they have torn to pieces the bonds. ⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them, A wolf from the desert plains* will devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities, everyone who goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous. ⁷ "_⌊How_⌋* can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by those who are not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked to the house of a prostitute. ⁸ They were well-fed lusty horses, they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor. ⁹ Because of these things shall I not punish?" _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?

²⁹ Because of these things shall I not punish?" _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?

⁷ I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my _⌊heart_⌋* into the hand of her enemies.

¹⁴ And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies,* and they make strong the hands of evildoers, so that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah."

¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not care for you. I have struck you with the blow of an enemy, the punishment of the cruel, because of the greatness of your guilt, your sins are numerous. ¹⁵ Why do you cry because of your wound? Your pain is incurable. Because of the greatness of your guilt—your sins are vast— I have done these things to you.

²¹ "The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors,* your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, did not Yahweh remember them, and did it not come to his _⌊mind_⌋?* ²² And Yahweh was no longer able to bear* it, _⌊because of_⌋* the evil of your deeds, _⌊because of_⌋* the detestable things that you committed. Thus your land became as a site of ruins, and as a horror, and as a curse, _⌊without_⌋* inhabitants, as it is this day.

¹⁸ Yahweh is righteous; I have rebelled against _⌊his word_⌋.* Please hear, all the nations, And see my pain; My young women* and young men went into captivity.

¹⁷ Yahweh has done what he has planned; he has fulfilled his promise that he ordained from the days of old; he has demolished and not shown mercy; he has made an enemy rejoice over you, he has exalted the _⌊might_⌋* of your foes.

³⁹ Why should any living person complain about his sin? ⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways; let us return to Yahweh. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens. ⁴² We ourselves have transgressed and rebelled, you have not forgiven. ⁴³ You have covered yourself _⌊in anger_⌋* and pursued us, you have slain and not shown mercy.

⁴⁶ All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.

¹⁷ And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?* _⌊Was it too small a thing_⌋* for the house of Judah _⌊to do_⌋* the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and _⌊they provoked me to anger again_⌋,* and look! They are putting the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ And so I will act in rage, and my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion, and they will cry in my ear with a loud voice, and I will not hear them."

⁹ And he said to me, "The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is _⌊exceedingly_⌋* great, and the land is filled with bloodguilt, and the city is full of injustice. For they say Yahweh abandoned the land, and _⌊Yahweh does not see_⌋.*

²⁴ "Son of man,* say to her, 'You are a land not cleansed; it is not rained upon in the day of indignation.' ²⁵ The conspiracy of its prophets in the midst of her is like a roaring lion that is tearing prey. They devour people, and they take wealth and treasure; they make its widows numerous in the midst of her. ²⁶ Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between a holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned in the midst of them. ²⁷ Its officials are like wolves tearing prey in its midst, to pour out blood, to destroy people, to make dishonest gain. ²⁸ And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; they are seeing falseness and are practicing divination for them by lying, saying, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh,' and Yahweh has not spoken. ²⁹ They severely oppress the people of the land, and _⌊they committed robbery_⌋,* and they mistreated the needy and the poor, and they oppressed the alien _⌊without_⌋* justice. ³⁰ And so I sought for them somebody, one repairing the wall and standing in the breach _⌊before me_⌋* on behalf of the land not to destroy it, but I did not find anyone, ³¹ and so I poured out my indignation on them. With the fire of my wrath I destroyed them; I returned their way upon their head," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

⁷ "_⌊Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord_⌋,* and on us is open shame, just as it is this day to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, _⌊those who are near and those who are far off_⌋* in all the lands to which you have driven them,* because of their infidelity which they displayed against you. ⁸ Yahweh, on us is open shame, on our kings, on our princes, and on our ancestors,* because we have sinned against you. ⁹ _⌊Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord, our God_⌋,* for we have rebelled against him, ¹⁰ and we have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God, by following his law _⌊which he placed before us_⌋* by the hand of his servants the prophets. ¹¹ "And all Israel transgressed your law and turned aside so as not to listen to your voice, and so the curse and the oath which was written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. ¹² And so he has carried out his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us a great calamity which was not done under all of heaven as it was done in Jerusalem. ¹³ Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all of this calamity has come upon us, and _⌊we have not implored_⌋* the face of Yahweh our God so as to turn from our iniquities and to attend closely to your faithfulness.* ¹⁴ So Yahweh has kept watch over the* calamity, and now he has brought it upon us. Indeed, Yahweh our God is righteous concerning all his works* that he has done, but we have not listened to his voice. ¹⁵ "And now, Lord our God, who have brought your people out from the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and you have made for yourself a name until this day—we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. ¹⁶ Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your rage turn away from your city Jerusalem, _⌊your holy mountain_⌋,* because through our sins and through the iniquities of our ancestors* Jerusalem and your people have become an object of mockery among all of our neighbors.

⁹ Hear this, O rulers of the house of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel, those detesting justice and perverting all that is right, ¹⁰ he who builds Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness. ¹¹ Its rulers judge for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money. But they lean on Yahweh, saying, "Is not Yahweh in our midst? Disaster will not come upon us." ¹² Therefore on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble, and _⌊the temple mount_⌋* as a high place in a forest.

⁸ You should not rejoice over me, O my enemy! When I fall I will stand up; when I sit in darkness Yahweh will be a light for me. ⁹ I will bear the rage of Yahweh, for I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes my justice. He will bring me out to the light; I will see his righteousness. ¹⁰ Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is Yahweh your God?" My eyes will look upon her; now she will become a trampling place, like mud in the streets.

¹ Woe to you, O rebellious and defiled one! The oppressing city! ² She listens to no voice; she does not accept correction. In Yahweh she does not trust; to her God she does not draw near. ³ Her officials in her midst are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they leave nothing until the morning. ⁴ Her prophets are arrogant men of treachery; her priests have defiled that which is holy; they do violence to the law. ⁵ Yahweh is righteous in her midst; he does not do wickedness. _⌊Morning by morning_⌋* he renders his judgment; at dawn he does not fail, but an evil one knows no shame. ⁶ "I have cut off nations; their strongholds are deserted. I have laid waste their streets, so that none pass through. Their cities have been destroyed and are without a man, without an inhabitant. ⁷ I have said, 'Surely she will fear me; she will accept discipline. Then her dwelling place will not be cut down, nor all that I have brought upon her.' Surely they rise early; they make all their deeds corrupt. ⁸ "Therefore, wait for me"—a declaration of Yahweh— "for the day of my rising as a witness. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble* kingdoms, to pour out my wrath upon them, all my burning anger. For by the fire of my anger all the land shall be consumed.

³⁶ As for* the ones who remain among you, I will bring* fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight _⌊before_⌋* a sword, and they shall fall, but* there shall not be a pursuer. ³⁷ And they shall stumble over _⌊one another_⌋* as _⌊from before_⌋* a sword, but* there shall not be a pursuer; and _⌊you shall have no resistance_⌋* _⌊before_⌋* your enemies.

²⁵ "Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated _⌊before_⌋* your enemies; on one road you shall go _⌊against_⌋* them,* but you will flee on seven roads _⌊before_⌋* them,* and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth.

³⁰ How could one chase a thousand and two could cause a myriad to flee, if their Rock had not sold them, and Yahweh had not given them up?

¹² The _⌊Israelites_⌋* were unable to stand before their enemies; _⌊they fled from their enemies_⌋* because they have become a thing devoted* for destruction. _⌊I will be with you no more_⌋* unless you destroy the devoted things* from among you. ¹³ Get up, sanctify the people, and say, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: "There are devoted things* in your midst, O Israel. You will be unable to stand before you enemies until you remove the devoted things* from your midst."

¹¹ _⌊How much more_⌋* when wicked men kill a righteous man in his house, on his bed! So then, shall I not seek his lifeblood from your hand, so that I may destroy you from the earth?" ¹² Then David commanded the young men, and they killed them, and they cut off their hands and their feet, and they hung them at the pool at Hebron, but the head of Ish-Bosheth they took and buried in the grave of Abner at Hebron.

²¹ This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:
She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head.

⁹ Surely you have rejected and disgraced us, and have not gone out with our armies. ¹⁰ You have caused us to pull back from the enemy, and so those who hate us have plundered for themselves. ¹¹ You have given us as sheep for food, and among the nations you have scattered us.

² Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is _⌊Mount Zion_⌋,* _⌊in the far north_⌋,* the city of the great king. ³ God is in her citadels; he is known as a high stronghold.

² From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

⁹ Worship Yahweh in holy array; tremble before him, all the earth.

¹² If your sons will heed my covenant and my testimonies that I will teach them, their sons also forever will sit on your throne." ¹³ For Yahweh has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation.

²¹ How has a faithful city become like a whore? Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

⁵ Then Yahweh will create over all of the site* of _⌊Mount Zion_⌋* and over her assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,

⁶ Inhabitant of Zion, shout out and sing for joy, for the holy one of Israel is great in your midst."

¹⁸ "Say to the king and to the queen mother, '_⌊Take a lower seat_⌋,* for _⌊your beautiful crown_⌋* has come down from your head.'*

⁵ For even the doe in the field gives birth and forsakes her young,* because there is no green growth. ⁶ And wild asses stand on the barren heights, they gasp for breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation."

⁴ "Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles* whom I have deported from Jerusalem to Babylon,

³ from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the clattering of his chariots,* the noise of their wheels. Fathers do not turn to their children because of the slackness of their hands.

⁴¹ Kerioth will be taken, and the strongholds will be conquered, and the hearts* of the warriors of Moab will be on that day like the heart of a woman who is in labor.

³⁰ The warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight, they remain in the strongholds, their power has dried up, they have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire, her bars are broken. ³¹ one runner runs to meet another runner, and one messenger to meet another messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, _⌊from end to end_⌋.* ³² And the fords have been seized, and the reed marshes have been burned with fire, and _⌊the soldiers_⌋* are horrified.

⁷ Then the city was breached, and all _⌊the soldiers_⌋* fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls that are at the garden of the king, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went in the direction of the Jordan Valley.* ⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

¹¹ Then he made blind the eyes of Zedekiah, and they tied him up with bronze fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon. And he put him in _⌊prison_⌋* until the day of his death.

¹³ And he burned the _⌊temple_⌋* of Yahweh, and the palace* of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burned with fire.

¹ How, _⌊in his anger_⌋,* the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud! He has thrown down from heavens to earth the splendor of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of _⌊his anger_⌋.* ² The Lord has devoured; he has not shown mercy to all the dwellings of Jacob; he has broken down in his wrath the fortifications of the daughter of Judah; he has leveled to the ground, he has dishonored the kingdom and its commanders.* ³ He has cut down _⌊in fierce anger_⌋* all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn his right hand from the faces of the enemy, and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, it has consumed all around. ⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy; he has set his right hand like a foe, and he has slain all the treasures of the eye;* in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his anger like fire. ⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy; he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all its citadel fortresses;* he has ruined all its fortifications and multiplied lamentation and mourning in the daughter of Judah.

²⁰ " 'And the beauty of its* ornament _⌊he made into a prideful thing_⌋* and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them. ²¹ And I will give it into the hand of strangers as plunder and to the wicked people of the earth as spoil, and they will defile it. ²² And I will turn my face from them, and they will defile my treasured place, and violent ones will enter and defile it.

²² Then* the cherubim lifted up their wings, and their* wheels were beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel _⌊was over them_⌋.* ²³ And the glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and it stood still on the mountain that is to the east of the city.

²¹ "Say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I will be profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength and the delight of your eyes and the object of your own* affection; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword,

²⁵ "And you, son of man,* will it not be that on the day _⌊when I take from them_⌋* their stronghold, the joy of their glory, the delight of their eyes, and the longing of their inner self,* their sons and daughters—

¹⁴ Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Cry aloud, O Israel! Rejoice and be jubilant with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ Yahweh has annulled your judgments; he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, Yahweh, is in your midst; you shall no longer fear misfortune. ¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, "Fear not, O Zion; your hands shall not hang limp. ¹⁷ Yahweh your God is in your midst; a mighty warrior who saves. He shall rejoice over you with joy; he renews* you in his love; he will exult over you with singing.

⁷ For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, whenever* we call upon him? ⁸ And what other great nation has for it* just rules and regulations just like* _⌊this whole_⌋* law that I am setting _⌊before_⌋* you _⌊today_⌋?*

³⁴ Or has a god ever attempted to go to take for himself* a nation from the midst of a nation, using trials and signs and wonders and war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds, like all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ You yourselves* were shown this wonder in order for you to acknowledge that Yahweh is the God;* there is no other God _⌊besides him_⌋.* ³⁶ From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved your ancestors* he chose their _⌊descendants_⌋* after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt _⌊with his own presence_⌋,* by his great strength,

⁷ For Yahweh your God is bringing you to a good land with streams of water, springs and underground water, welling up in the valleys* and in the hills,* ⁸ to a land of wheat and barley and vines* and fig trees* and pomegranate trees,* a land of olive trees,* olive oil and honey; ⁹ to a land where you may eat food in it _⌊without scarcity_⌋;* you will not find anything lacking in it, a land where its stones are iron and from its mountains you can mine copper.

² "_⌊O that I were_⌋* as in the months before, as in the days when God watched over me,

⁴ These I remember and I pour out my soul within me: that I would go with the multitude; I led them in procession to the house* of God, with a voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving, a crowd celebrating a festival.

³ I remember God and I groan loudly; I meditate and my spirit grows faint.

⁵ I think about the days from long ago, the years of ancient times. ⁶ I remember my song in the night. With my heart I meditate, and my spirit searches to understand. ⁷ Will the Lord reject us forever, and will he never be pleased with us again? ⁸ Has his loyal love ceased forever? Is his promise* ended throughout generations? ⁹ Has God forgotten to have compassion? Or has he closed off his mercies in anger? Selah

⁴ We have become a taunt to our neighbors, a derision and a scorn to those around us.

³ For there our captors asked of us words of a song, and our tormentors* asked of us jubilation, "Sing for us from a song of Zion." ⁴ How could we sing the song of Yahweh in _⌊a foreign land_⌋?*

¹⁹ He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. ²⁰ He has not done so for any nation, and they do not know his ordinances. Praise Yah.*

¹ Let me sing for my beloved a song of my love concerning his vineyard: _⌊My beloved had a vineyard_⌋* on _⌊a fertile hill_⌋.* ² And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it with choice vines,* and he built a watchtower in the middle of it, and he even hewed out a wine vat in it, and he waited for it to yield grapes— but it yielded wild grapes. ³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men* of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. ⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?

⁷ "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'This is what you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me, "Look, the army of Pharaoh, which set out to help you, is going to return to his land Egypt.

¹⁵ They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, "A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?" ¹⁶ They have opened their mouths against you, all your enemies. They hiss and gnash a tooth, and they say, "We have destroyed her! Surely this is the day we have hoped for; we have found it, we have seen it!"

¹⁷ Still our eyes failed, looking for our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save.

¹¹ And now, many nations are gathered against you who are saying, 'Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.'

¹⁷ "But when he* came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired workers have an abundance _⌊of food_⌋,* and I am dying here from hunger!

²⁵ But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. But now he is comforted here, but you are suffering pain.

³⁰ Therefore,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh the God of Israel, 'though I solemnly said that your house and the house of your ancestor* would walk before me forever, but now,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, I will treat with contempt!

⁴⁶ "If they sin against you (for there is not a person who does not sin) and you are angry with them and you give them to an enemy and they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near, ⁴⁷ and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,'

⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, even the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples.

⁹ And they will say, 'Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors* out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.'"

³ Your nakedness shall be exposed; indeed, your shame shall become visible. I will take vengeance and I will not _⌊spare_⌋* a person.

² Rather, your iniquities have been _⌊barriers_⌋* between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue speaks wickedness. ⁴ There is nobody _⌊who pleads with_⌋* justice, and there is nobody who judges with honesty. They rely on nothing and speak vanity. They conceive trouble and beget iniquity; ⁵ they hatch viper eggs, and they weave a spider web. One who eats their eggs dies, and that which is pressed is hatched as a serpent. ⁶ Their webs cannot become clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds* of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their firm paths. They have made their paths crooked for themselves; everyone _⌊who walks_⌋* in it knows no peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but* look! there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. ¹⁰ We grope like the blind along a wall, and we grope _⌊as without_⌋* eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight; among the strong we are like the dead. ¹¹ We all groan like bears, and we coo mutteringly like doves. We wait for justice, but* there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are numerous before you, and our sins _⌊testify_⌋* against us. Indeed, our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning _⌊away from following_⌋* our God; speaking oppression and falsehood, conceiving and uttering words of deception from the heart.

³¹ For I heard a voice like an ill woman, anxiety like a woman who bears her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion. She is gasping for breath, she is spreading out her hands: "Woe is me, for I am becoming tired* before killers."

²⁸ All of them are stubborn rebels, going about talking slander. They are bronze and iron, they are all behaving corruptly.

²² And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things happened to me?' Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered; your heels have endured violence.

²⁶ So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face, and your shame will become visible.

⁴ And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ "_⌊Therefore_⌋* thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I am going to proclaim to you a release,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁴ The roads of Zion are mourning because no one comes to the festival. All her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young women are worried, and she herself suffers bitterly. ⁵ Her foes have become her _⌊master_⌋,* her enemies are at ease; Yahweh has made her suffer because of the greatness of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captive before the foe.

¹¹ All her people groan, they are searching for bread. They give their treasures for food, to bring back life. See, O Yahweh, and look, how I am despised.

²⁰ See, O Yahweh, that _⌊I am in distress_⌋;* _⌊my stomach_⌋* is in torment, my heart has turned inside me because I have certainly rebelled. From outside a sword brings bereavement, inside the house it is like death. ²¹ They hear that I was groaning; there is no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring that day that you have proclaimed,* And let them be like me. ²² Let all their evil come before you; and deal with them just as you have dealt with me because of all my crimes; for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.

¹⁵ "Go away! Defiled!" they shout to them. "Go away! Go away! Do not touch!" so they left, they left; it was said among the nations, "_⌊They will no longer dwell with us_⌋."* ¹⁶ The presence of Yahweh has scattered them, he will no longer watch over them; _⌊they did not honor the priests_⌋,* they did not show mercy to elders.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup will pass, you will become drunk and strip yourself bare.

¹² They hang princes by their hand; they do not show respect before elders. ¹³ Young men must carry a hand-mill and boys stumble under the wood. ¹⁴ Elders are no longer at the gate, young men no longer play stringed instruments. ¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has stopped; our circle-dancing has changed to a mourning ceremony. ¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹³ "Son of man,* when a land sins against me by _⌊acting very unfaithfully_⌋,* then I will stretch out my hand against it, and I will break for it the _⌊supply of food_⌋,* and I will send against it famine, and I will cut it off, both human and animal. ¹⁴ And if even the three of these men were in the midst of it—Noah, Daniel, and Job—they, through their righteousness, would save only _⌊themselves_⌋!"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁵ "If a fierce animal I should let cross through the land, and it should make it childless and it will be a desolation, so that there will not be one crossing over the land _⌊due to_⌋* the presence of the animal, ¹⁶ even if these three men were in the midst of it, _⌊as surely as I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "surely they will not save sons and daughters; _⌊they themselves alone_⌋,* they will be saved, but the land will be a desolation. ¹⁷ Or, if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, 'Sword, let it cross over into* the land!' And I will cut off from it both human and animal. ¹⁸ And if these three men were in the midst of it, _⌊as surely as I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "they will not save sons and daughters, but _⌊they alone_⌋* will be saved. ¹⁹ And if I were to send a plague to that land, and I pour out my rage on it with blood to cut it off, both human and animal, ²⁰ and if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of her, _⌊as surely as I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "surely not a son, surely not a daughter will they save by their righteousness; they would save _⌊themselves_⌋."* ²¹ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "How much more when I send my four punishments—the evil sword, and famine, and a fierce animal, and a plague—to Jerusalem to cut it off, both human and animal!

³⁷ therefore, look! I am gathering all of your lovers _⌊whom you were pleased about_⌋,* and all of whom you loved in addition to all of whom you hated, and I will gather them against you from _⌊everywhere_⌋,* and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all of your nakedness. ³⁸ And I will judge you with the judgment of women committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your mound, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋,* and they will leave you naked and bare.

² "And you, son of man,* will you judge? Will you judge the _⌊bloody city_⌋?* Then you must make known to her all of her detestable things! ³ And you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "A city pouring out blood in the midst of her; _⌊its time has come_⌋,* and it made idols for itself, becoming unclean. ⁴ By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, _⌊and your appointed years have come_⌋.* Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries. ⁵ The people near and the people far from you will make fun of you, _⌊the unclean and the terrified_⌋.* ⁶ Look! The princes of Israel, each one according to his strength,* they are in you _⌊for the shedding of blood_⌋.* ⁷ They have treated father and mother with contempt in you; _⌊they violated_⌋* the alien with* extortion; in the midst of you they mistreated the orphan and widow. ⁸ You despised my holy objects; my Sabbaths you profaned. ⁹ Slanderous men are _⌊among you_⌋* to shed blood, and they, _⌊among you_⌋,* eat upon the mountains; they do wickedness in the midst of you. ¹⁰ They uncover the nakedness of a father among* you; they violate a woman unclean of menstruation among* you. ¹¹ And a man does a detestable thing with the wife of his neighbor, and a man defiles his daughter-in-law in wickedness, and a man sexually violates among* you his sister, the daughter of his father. ¹² They take a bribe among* you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and so you have forgotten me, _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ¹³ And look! I strike my hand for your ill-gotten gain that you have made and at your blood that was in the midst of you. ¹⁴ Can your heart endure,* or can your hands be strong at the days in which I am dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act! ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.

²⁹ And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take all of your acquisitions, and they will leave you naked and in bareness; and the nakedness of your fornication and your obscene conduct and your whorings will be exposed.

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Bring up against them an assembly, and make them as a thing of horror and as plunder.

³ Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst.

¹⁰ And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

¹⁸ I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, in order that you may become rich, and white clothing, in order that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and eye salve to smear on your eyes, in order that you may see.

⁷ And Yahweh said, "Surely I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings.

¹⁷ And I said, "I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites* and the Hittites* and the Amorites* and the Perizzites* and the Hivites* and the Jebusites,* to a land flowing with milk and honey." '

³¹ And the people believed when they heard that Yahweh had attended to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* and that he had seen their misery, and they knelt down and they worshiped.

⁷ And we cried to Yahweh, the God of our ancestors,* and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression.

²⁷ If I had not feared a provocation of the enemy, lest their foes might misunderstand, * lest they should say, * "Our hand is _⌊triumphant_⌋,* and Yahweh did not do all this." '

²⁹ If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern _⌊for themselves their end_⌋.*

¹¹ She _⌊made a vow_⌋* and said: "O Yahweh of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the misery of your female servant, and will remember me, and not forget your female servant, and will give to your female servant _⌊a male child_⌋* then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor will never pass over his head."*

¹² Perhaps Yahweh will look _⌊in my eye_⌋* and repay good for me in place of his curse this day.

²⁶ For Yahweh saw that the misery of Israel was very bitter, whether bond or free, but there was no helper for Israel.

³² "And now our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loyal love, do not belittle in your presence all of the hardship that is found in us, our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors,* and all of our people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

¹⁸ Consider my affliction and trouble, and forgive* all my sins.

⁸ They have said in their heart, "We will completely* oppress them." They burned all the meeting places of God in the land. ⁹ We do not see our signs, and there is no longer a prophet. No one with us knows how long.

²² Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember the reproaching of you by the foolish _⌊all day long_⌋.* ²³ Do not forget the sound of your adversaries, the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.

¹⁵³ See my misery and rescue me, for I do not forget your law.

⁸ Do not grant, O Yahweh, the desires of the wicked. Do not allow them to attain their* plan, lest they be exalted. Selah

¹ I looked again, and I saw all the oppression that occurs under the sun.
_⌊I saw the tears of the oppressed— no one comforts them! Those who oppress them are powerful— no one can comfort them_⌋!*

⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh, defying the eyes of his glory.

⁴ Maybe Yahweh your God heard the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.'"

¹⁷ Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God!

²³ Whom have you taunted and blasphemed, and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?
To the holy one of Israel!

²⁹ Because you were enraged _⌊against_⌋* me, and your noise* has come up to* my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.

² "Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her,
that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has _⌊received_⌋* from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins."

⁷ And you said, "I shall be an eternal mistress forever!" You did not set these things upon your heart; you did not remember its end.

¹¹ "O afflicted one, driven away, who is not consoled. Look! I am about to set your stones in hard mortar, and I will lay your foundation with sapphires.

³⁴ Also on your skirts is found the blood of the life of the innocent, the poor. You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house. But in spite of all these things,

³¹ The prophets prophesy _⌊falsely_⌋,* and the priests rule _⌊by their own authority_⌋,* and my people love it* so much. But what will you do _⌊when the end comes_⌋?*

¹⁷ But if you will not listen to it, my inner self* will weep in secret places, because of _⌊the presence of_⌋* your pride. And my eyes* will weep bitterly, and they will melt in tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive. ¹⁸ "Say to the king and to the queen mother, '_⌊Take a lower seat_⌋,* for _⌊your beautiful crown_⌋* has come down from your head.'*

²⁷ Your adulteries, and your neighings, the shameful behavior of your fornications on the hills in the countryside, I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! _⌊How long will you continue to be unclean_⌋?*"

⁷ And they will not break bread for the mourning ceremony for them, to comfort him because of the dead. And they will not give drink to them, the cup of desolation, for their fathers,* or for their mothers.*

²⁶ "Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against Yahweh, and let Moab wallow in his vomit. And he also will become a laughingstock.

²⁹ Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, so do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.

¹ How desolate the city sits that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations! Like a woman of nobility in the provinces, she has become a forced laborer. ² She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands; there is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded against Jacob, that those surrounding him* should be his enemies; Jerusalem has become a defilement among them.

¹³ What can I say for you? What can I compare to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

¹² Through effort she has caused weariness; _⌊its thick rust_⌋* went not out of it. Its rust! Into the fire with its rust! ¹³ In your uncleanness is obscene conduct, because I cleansed you, but you were not clean from your uncleanness; you will not be clean again until _⌊I fully vent my rage_⌋* on you.

¹⁷ "And now, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy. Shine* your face upon your desolate sanctuary _⌊for your sake, O Lord_⌋.* ¹⁸ Incline your ear, my God, and listen; open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that is called by your name, for we are not presenting our pleas for mercy _⌊before you_⌋* because of our righteousness, but rather because of your great compassion. ¹⁹ Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, pay heed and act! You must not delay _⌊for your sake_⌋,* my God; because _⌊your city and your people are called by your name_⌋."*

¹⁴ Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her and bring her into the desert, and _⌊I will speak tenderly to her_⌋.*

¹⁰ This shall be for them in place of their pride because they mocked and boasted against the people of Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁹ So many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary in order to console them concerning their* brother.)

⁴ who opposes and who exalts himself over every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while* we were still with you, we were saying these things to you? ⁶ And you know that which restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one who now restrains* will do so until he is out of the way,* ⁸ and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth, and wipe out by the appearance of his coming,

¹⁷ For it is the time for the judgment to begin out from the household of God. But if it begins out from us first, what will be the outcome for those who are disobedient to the gospel of God?

³ An Ammonite or a Moabite may not come into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation none _⌊of his descendants_⌋* may come into the assembly of Yahweh _⌊forever_⌋,*

¹ On that day the book of Moses was read in the hearing of the people and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God

⁴ Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they have set up their signs for signs. ⁵ They are* known to be like those who _⌊wield_⌋* axes in a thicket of trees. ⁶ And now* its* carved works altogether they have smashed with axe and hammer. ⁷ They have set fire to your sanctuary. They have defiled to the ground, the dwelling place for your name. ⁸ They have said in their heart, "We will completely* oppress them." They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

¹ A psalm of Asaph.*
O God, the nations have entered your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have reduced Jerusalem to ruins. ² They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. ³ They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. ⁴ We have become a taunt to our neighbors, a derision and a scorn to those around us. ⁵ How long, O Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? ⁶ Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name, ⁷ because they* have devoured Jacob and have laid waste his habitation.

¹³ Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge, and their* nobles* will be men of hunger, and their* multitude is parched with thirst. ¹⁴ Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat, and it has opened wide its mouth without limit, and her* nobles* will go down, and her multitude, her tumult and those who revel in her.

¹⁰ _⌊Your holy cities_⌋* have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. ¹¹ _⌊Our holy and beautiful temple_⌋,* where our ancestors* praised you has _⌊been burned_⌋* by fire, and all our precious objects have become ruins.*

¹³ I will give your wealth and your treasures as plunder without price, even because of all your sins, and throughout all your territories.

⁵ And I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its acquisitions, and all its precious items, and all of the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and they will seize them, and they will bring them to Babylon.

⁵¹ We are ashamed, for we have heard taunts,* disgrace covers our faces, for strangers have come to the holy places of the house of Yahweh.

¹⁷ And the Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in the _⌊temple_⌋* of Yahweh, and the kettle stands and the sea of bronze that were in the _⌊temple_⌋* of Yahweh, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ And they took with them the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pans, and all the vessels of bronze which were used in temple service. ¹⁹ And the captain of the guard* took the bowls, and the firepans, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the pans, and the libation bowls, _⌊those made of solid gold_⌋* and _⌊those made of solid silver_⌋.* ²⁰ The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were under the kettle stands which King Solomon had made for the _⌊temple_⌋* of Yahweh—there was not a weight for the bronze of all these vessels!

⁷ Jerusalem remembers the days of her misery and wanderings, all her treasures that were from the days of long ago. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, there was no one helping her; the enemies saw her, they mocked at her destruction.

²² And I will turn my face from them, and they will defile my treasured place, and violent ones will enter and defile it.

⁷ And he said to them, "Defile the house* and fill the courtyards with the dead; go out! And they went out, and they killed in the city.

⁷ At* your bringing _⌊foreigners_⌋* who are uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh to be in my sanctuary to profane it, my temple,* _⌊as you offered my food, fat, and blood_⌋,* so* you broke my covenant by all of your detestable things.

¹⁴ "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be" (let the one who reads understand), "then those in Judea must flee to the mountains!

⁵² And it shall besiege you in all your towns _⌊until your high and fortified walls fall_⌋,* which you are trusting in* _⌊throughout your land_⌋;* and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you. ⁵³ And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave to you, _⌊during the siege and during the distress_⌋* your enemy inflicts upon you. ⁵⁴ The most refined and the very sensitive* man among you _⌊shall be mean with his brother_⌋* and _⌊against his beloved wife_⌋* and against the rest* of his children that he has left over, ⁵⁵ _⌊by refraining from giving_⌋* to even one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because there is not anything that is left over for him _⌊during the siege and distress_⌋* that your enemy inflicts upon you. ⁵⁶ The most refined and the most delicate woman among you, who shall* not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being so delicate and from such gentleness, _⌊shall be mean to her beloved husband_⌋* and against her son and against her daughter, ⁵⁷ and even concerning her afterbirth _⌊that goes out_⌋* from between her feet and also concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret _⌊during the siege and during the distress_⌋* that your enemy inflicts upon her in your _⌊towns_⌋.*

¹¹ Then they found an Egyptian man in the open country and brought him to David, and they gave him food and he ate; they also gave him water. ¹² They gave him a slice of fig cake and two raisin cakes; he ate and _⌊this revived him_⌋,* because he had not eaten food or drunk water for three days and three nights.

²⁵ There was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, a siege was against it, until the head of a donkey went for eighty shekels of silver, and one fourth of the measure of the dung of doves went for five shekels of silver.

⁴ "Look, I am insignificant. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

¹⁵ My eyes are continually toward Yahweh, because he will take my feet from the net. ¹⁶ Turn to me and have mercy on me because I am lonely and afflicted. ¹⁷ Remove the troubles of my heart; bring me out from my distresses. ¹⁸ Consider my affliction and trouble, and forgive* all my sins. ¹⁹ Consider that my enemies are many, and they hate me with violent hatred.

⁹ And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them." '

⁹ "My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, in that they have thrown him into the pit,* and he will die _⌊there_⌋* _⌊because of_⌋* starvation, for there is no longer any bread in the city."

⁶ In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine in the city became severe and there was no food for the people of the land.

¹² To their mothers they say, "Where is the bread and wine?" as they faint like the wounded in the public squares of a city, as their life is being poured out onto the bosom of their mothers.

²⁰ See, Yahweh, and take note! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their young children of tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

⁴ The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg for food, _⌊no one lays it out before them_⌋.* ⁵ The ones who eat delicacies, they are ruined in the streets; the ones nurtured in purple lie on piles of trash. ⁶ The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her. ⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphire their appearance. ⁸ Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood. ⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹⁵ And he said to me, "See I will give you _⌊cattle manure_⌋* in the place of the feces of a human, and you may prepare your food on it." ¹⁶ And he said to me, "Son of man,* look, I am going to break the _⌊supply_⌋* of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight, _⌊anxiously_⌋,* and _⌊rationed water_⌋,* and they will drink with horror, ¹⁷ so that they will lack food and water, and they will be appalled _⌊with one another_⌋,* and they will waste away because of their guilt.*

¹⁶ When I send my arrows of deadly famine against them, which will be as destruction that I will send in order to destroy you, I will increase famine against you, and I will break _⌊the supply of food_⌋* for you. ¹⁷ And I will send against you famine and fierce animals,* and they will make you childless; and plague and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, Yahweh, I have spoken!"

¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will quake from its place because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day his anger burns.

¹⁶ To make their land a horror, an object of whistling for eternity. All who pass by it will be appalled, and he will shake his head.

²⁴ _⌊The burning anger of Yahweh_⌋* will not turn back until his doing, and until his accomplishing the plans of his _⌊mind_⌋.* In the last of the days you will understand it.

⁶ The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her. ⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphire their appearance. ⁸ Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood. ⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹ Yahweh has completed his anger, he has poured out _⌊his fierce anger_⌋;* he has kindled a fire in Zion, it consumed her* foundations.

¹² And so he has carried out his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us a great calamity which was not done under all of heaven as it was done in Jerusalem.

²¹ For at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will happen.

²² because these are days of vengeance, so that all the things that are written can be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those _⌊who are pregnant_⌋* and to those who are nursing their babies* in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people,

²⁸ But turning to them, Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children! ²⁹ For behold, days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that did not give birth, and the breasts that did not nurse!' ³⁰ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' ³¹ For if they do these things _⌊when the wood is green_⌋,* what will happen _⌊when it is dry_⌋?"*

⁶⁵ And among these nations you shall not find rest, and there shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes* and a languishing of your inner self.*

²¹ They annoyed me with what is not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them. ²² For a fire was kindled* by my anger, and it burned _⌊up to the depths of Sheol_⌋,* and it devoured the earth and its produce, and it set afire the foundation of the mountains. ²³ I will heap disasters upon them; my arrows I will spend on them. ²⁴ They will become weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with the poison of the creeping things in the dust; ²⁵ From outside her boundaries the sword will make her childless, and from inside, terror; both for the young man and also the young woman, the infant along with the gray-headed man.

⁸ for he is thrust into a net by his feet, and he walks into a pitfall.

⁶ know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net.

³⁰ My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with heat.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted _⌊within me_⌋.*

¹⁰ For my life is at an end with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength stumbles because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

⁴ Let those who seek my life be shamed and humiliated. Let those who plot calamity against me be repulsed and ashamed.

¹¹ You brought us into the net; you placed a _⌊heavy burden_⌋* on our backs.

² Let them be ashamed and abashed who seek my life. Let them be repulsed and humiliated who desire my harm. ³ let them turn back because of their shame, those who say, "Aha! Aha!"

³ for my days vanish in smoke, and my bones are charred like a hearth. ⁴ My heart is struck like grass and withers. Indeed, I forget to eat* my bread. ⁵ Because of the sound of my groaning my bones* cling to my skin.*

⁵ Let all be put to shame and repulsed who hate Zion.

¹⁷ They shall turn back; they shall be _⌊greatly ashamed_⌋,* those who trust in an image, who say to a cast image, "You are our gods."

¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels! I writhe! The walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent, for I hear in my inner self the sound of a horn, the alarm of war. ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, for all of the land is devastated. Suddenly my tents are devastated, my tent curtains in a moment. ²¹ How long must I see the banner, and hear the sound of a horn? ²² "For my people are foolish, they have not known me. They are foolish children, and they do not have insight. They are skillful at doing evil, and they do not know how to do good." ²³ I looked at the earth, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness, and to the heavens, and they were without their light. ²⁴ I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all of the hills were jolted to and fro. ²⁵ I looked and behold, there was no person, and all of the birds* of the sky had fled. ²⁶ I looked and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,* and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh, before the face of _⌊his burning anger_⌋.* ²⁷ For thus says Yahweh, "All of the land will be a desolation, yet I will not make a complete desolation. ²⁸ Because of this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will become dark. Because I have spoken, I have planned, and I have not relented, and I will not turn back from it." ²⁹ 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.

⁶ So my wrath and my anger were poured out* and burned* in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as they are this day.'

²² Let all their evil come before you; and deal with them just as you have dealt with me because of all my crimes; for my groaning is much and my heart is faint.

³ He has cut down _⌊in fierce anger_⌋* all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn his right hand from the faces of the enemy, and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, it has consumed all around. ⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy; he has set his right hand like a foe, and he has slain all the treasures of the eye;* in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his anger like fire.

¹⁷ Still our eyes failed, looking for our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save. ¹⁸ They hunted our steps, from walking in our streets; our end has come near, _⌊our days are finished_⌋,* our end has come. ¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert. ²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of Yahweh, was captured in their pits; of whom we said, "In his shadow we will live among the nations."

¹⁷ Because of this, our heart has become faint, because of these, our eyes have become dim.

¹³ And I will spread out my net on him, and he will be captured in my hunting snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and there he will die.

²⁰ And I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my hunting net, and I will bring him to Babylon, and I will enter into judgment with him there about his infidelity that he displayed against me.

³ Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Now I will spread my net over you in the assembly of many peoples, and I will bring you up in my dragnet.

¹² Just as they go, I will cast my net over them; I will bring them down like the birds* of the heavens;* I will discipline them according to a report to their assembly.*

⁶ His indignation—who can stand before it? Who can endure _⌊his fierce anger_⌋?* His wrath is poured out like fire; rocks are shattered before* him.

¹⁶ I hear and my stomach shakes; my lips quiver at the sound; infection enters my bones; that which is beneath me trembles; I wait quietly for the day of trouble to come upon the people attacking us.

⁸ with burning flame* giving punishment to those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus,

²⁹ For indeed our God is a consuming fire.

⁴⁸ then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place* a yoke of iron on your neck _⌊until he has destroyed you_⌋.*

²² His iniquities shall ensnare him, the evildoer, and in the vanity of his sin he shall be caught.

²⁵ to break Assyria in my land, and I will trample him down on my mountains; and he shall remove his yoke from them, and he shall remove his burden from his* shoulders."*

⁶ I was angry with my people; I profaned my inheritance, and I gave them into your hand. You did not _⌊give_⌋* them mercy; on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.

⁹ look, I am going to send and take all the clans* of the north,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'and I will send* to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will destroy them, and I will make them a horror, and an object of hissing, and _⌊everlasting ruins_⌋.*

⁸ "But it will be that the nation or kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, and with the famine, and with the plague," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "until I have destroyed it with my hand.

¹² And I spoke words like these to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, _⌊saying_⌋,* "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

¹⁴ For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they will serve him, and I have even given the animals* of the open field to him." '"

⁵ and to Babylon he will bring Zedekiah, and there he will be until my attending to him," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. "If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not be successful" '?"

²⁰ and I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of the seekers of their lives, and their dead bodies* will become as food for the birds* of the heavens* and for the animals* of the earth. ²¹ And Zedekiah the king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of the seekers of their lives, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, who retreated from you.

¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah sent and fetched him. And the king questioned him in secrecy in his house, and he said, "Is there a word from Yahweh?" And Jeremiah said, "There is." And he said, "You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon."

¹ In the ninth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. ² In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was taken by assault. ³ And all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the chief officer, Nergal-sharezer the high official, with all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ _⌊And then_⌋* _⌊when_⌋* Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all _⌊the soldiers_⌋* with him, they fled and went out at night from the city by the way of the garden of the king through the gate between the walls. And they went out toward the Jordan Valley. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced _⌊sentence_⌋* on him. ⁶ And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and tied him up with bronze fetters to bring him to Babylon. ⁸ And the Chaldeans burned the palace* of the king and the houses* of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Then the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those deserting who had deserted to him, and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,* deported to Babylon.

⁹ "And I will bring you out from its midst, and I will give you into the hand of strangers, and I will execute judgments against you.

³¹ And I will pour out my anger on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and I will give you into the hand of brutal men, skilled craftsmen of destruction.

²⁸ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom* you turned away.

⁴ therefore look! I am giving you to the people* of the East as a possession, and they will set up their encampments in you, and they will make in you their dwelling places; _⌊they themselves_⌋* will eat your fruit and _⌊they themselves_⌋* will drink your milk.

⁷ therefore look! I stretched out my hand against you, and I will give you as plunder* to the nations, and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the countries, and I will wipe you out, and you will know that I am Yahweh."

¹⁴ Because I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear and I will go; I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.

³³ A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed _⌊for the rest of your lives_⌋.*

⁸ They crushed and oppressed the _⌊Israelites_⌋* in that year; for eighteen years they crushed all the _⌊Israelites_⌋* who were beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites,* which is in Gilead.

³³ So he said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down, and her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her.

¹⁴ He deported all of Jerusalem: all of the commanders, ten thousand of the skilled warriors, and the artisans; no one was left over except the poorest of the people of the land. ¹⁵ He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king, the wives of the king, his court officials, and the citizenry of the land he caused to go into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ¹⁶ of all of the skilled men, seven thousand, and of the skilled craftsmen and the artisans, one thousand. All of the mighty warriors _⌊fit for war_⌋* the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

⁴ Then the city was breached, and all of the men of war entered by night by way of the gate between the wall which was by the garden of the king, and the Chaldeans were against the city all around, so he* left by the way of the Arabah. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the Arabah of Jericho, and all of his army scattered from him. ⁶ So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and _⌊they passed sentence on him_⌋.* ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; then they blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

¹¹⁸ You reject all who stray from your statutes, for their deceit is a breach of faith.

⁵ And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation. I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.

¹⁸ And your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; you will become a trampling place for the overwhelming flood when it passes through.

² Who has roused salvation from the east, summoned* him to his foot, gives nations _⌊in his presence_⌋,* and subjugates kings? He makes* them like the dust with his sword, like scattered stubble with his bow.

³ "I have trodden the winepress alone, and there was no man from the peoples with me. And I trod them in my anger, and I trampled them in my wrath, and spattered their juice on my garments, and stained all my clothing,

¹⁷ "And you shall say to them this word,
'Let my eyes melt with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for with a great wound the virgin daughter of my people is broken, with a very incurable wound.

²¹ _⌊Therefore_⌋* give their children to the famine, and hand them over to the _⌊power_⌋* of the sword, and let their wives be bereaved and widows, and let their men be killed by death, their young men struck dead by the sword in the battle.

¹⁰ For even if you struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and only men pierced through remained among them, each one in his tent, they would rise up and they would burn this city with fire.'"

²⁶ Come against her from the end, open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps and destroy her. Let there be no remnant for her.

³⁴ Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me and sucked me dry; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like the sea monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has rinsed me.

³⁴ To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth;

¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar said in rage and anger to bring in Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; then they brought in these men before the king.

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is Yahweh your God?" My eyes will look upon her; now she will become a trampling place, like mud in the streets.

³ You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am going to act," says Yahweh of hosts.

²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations,* and Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace?

¹⁹ And the angel swung his sickle into the earth and harvested the vine of the earth, and threw the grapes* into the great winepress of the wrath of God. ²⁰ And the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood went out from the winepress up to the bridles of the horses, about one thousand six hundred stadia.*

¹⁵ And out of his mouth came a sharp sword, so that with it he could strike the nations. And he will shepherd them with an iron rod,* and he stomps the winepress of the wine of the furious wrath of God, the All-Powerful.

²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick. And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

¹³⁶ Streams of water flow down from my eyes, because people do not heed your law.

¹⁰ For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds* of cattle are not heard, from the birds* of heaven to the animals* they have fled, they are gone.

²¹ For death has come into our windows, it has entered into our fortresses, to cut off the children* from the streets,* the young men from the public squares.

² She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies.

⁵ Her foes have become her _⌊master_⌋,* her enemies are at ease; Yahweh has made her suffer because of the greatness of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captive before the foe. ⁶ All her majesty has gone away from the daughter of Zion; her princes have become like young stags that have not found pasture; they have gone away without strength, before the pursuer.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord, "O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a river; day and night, do not give yourself relief, do not give your eyes rest.

²⁰ See, Yahweh, and take note! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their young children of tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ They lie in the soil of the streets, young and old; my young women* and young men, they have fallen by the sword; you have slain on the day of _⌊your anger_⌋,* you have slaughtered and not shown mercy. ²² You have summoned my horror from all around, as if for a feast day; no one on the day of Yahweh's anger is a fugitive and a survivor; whoever I have cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed.

⁴⁸ Channels of water run down my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹ My eyes have poured down unceasingly without respite,

² The precious sons of Zion weighed against fine gold, how they are thought of as earthen vessels of clay, the work of the potter's hands. ³ Even the jackal bears the beast and nurses their cubs; but the daughter of my people has become ruthless, like ostriches in the wilderness.

¹² Even though they bring up their children, I will bereave them before maturity.* Woe to them indeed, when I depart from them!

⁴¹ And when he approached and* saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, "If you had known on this day—even you—the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you and your enemies will put up an embankment* against you, and will surround you and press you hard from all directions. ⁴⁴ And they will raze you to the ground, you and your children within you, and will not leave a stone upon a stone within you, _⌊because_⌋* you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

¹ I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit— ² that my grief is great and there is constant distress in my heart. ³ For I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my fellow countrymen according to the flesh,

¹⁹ " 'And when a woman _⌊is menstruating_⌋,* her body fluid discharge occurs in* her body; for seven days she shall be in her menstruation, and any person who touches her shall become unclean until the evening. ²⁰ And anything upon which she lies down during her menstruation shall become unclean, and anything upon which she sits shall become unclean. ²¹ And any person who touches her bed must wash his garments, and he shall wash himself* with water, and he shall be unclean until the evening. ²² And any person who touches any object on which she sat must wash his garments, and he shall wash himself* with water, and he shall be unclean until the evening. ²³ And if it is on the bed or on the object on which she sits, at his touching it he becomes unclean until the evening. ²⁴ And if a man indeed lies with her and her menstruation occurs on him, then* he shall be unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies down becomes unclean. ²⁵ " 'And when a woman discharges a body fluid consisting of her blood for many days, but not at the time of her menstruation, or when she discharges in addition to* her menstruation, all the days of her unclean body fluid discharge she shall become unclean as in the days of her menstruation. ²⁶ Any bed on which she lies during all the days of her body fluid discharge shall become for her as her bed of menstruation, and any object on which she sits becomes unclean as her menstruation's uncleanness. ²⁷ And any person who touches them becomes unclean, and he shall wash his garments, and he shall wash himself* with water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.

²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands to the heavens,

³⁸ any prayer or any plea which is offered by any person for all of your people Israel, who each knows the infestation of his own heart and spreads out his palms to this house,

² So Yahweh sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, raiding bands of Aram, raiding bands of Moab, and raiding bands of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋.* He had sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of his servants the prophets. ³ Surely, it was _⌊on the command_⌋* of Yahweh against Judah to remove them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done. ⁴ Also, for the blood of the innocent that he had shed—and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood—Yahweh was not willing to forgive.

¹ It happened that in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his army, against Jerusalem. He encamped against it and built siege works against it all around.

¹⁵ And when you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers,* I will not be listening. Your hands are full of blood.

³ Shepherds and their flocks will come against her, they will pitch their tents against her all around, they will pasture, each his _⌊portion_⌋.*

⁶ Both the great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not mourn for them, and no one will cut himself with a blade, and no one will shave himself for them.

⁴ 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Look, I am about to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands,* with which you are fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city. ⁵ And I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand, and with strong arm, and in _⌊anger_⌋,* and in fury, and in great wrath.

²² Look, I am going to command,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation _⌊without_⌋* an inhabitant.'"

¹⁶ For these things, I am weeping, _⌊my eyes flow with tears_⌋;* because a comforter is far from me, one to restore my life. My sons are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.

¹ How, _⌊in his anger_⌋,* the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in a cloud! He has thrown down from heavens to earth the splendor of Israel, and he has not remembered his footstool in the day of _⌊his anger_⌋.* ² The Lord has devoured; he has not shown mercy to all the dwellings of Jacob; he has broken down in his wrath the fortifications of the daughter of Judah; he has leveled to the ground, he has dishonored the kingdom and its commanders.* ³ He has cut down _⌊in fierce anger_⌋* all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn his right hand from the faces of the enemy, and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, it has consumed all around. ⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy; he has set his right hand like a foe, and he has slain all the treasures of the eye;* in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his anger like fire. ⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy; he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all its citadel fortresses;* he has ruined all its fortifications and multiplied lamentation and mourning in the daughter of Judah. ⁶ He has broken down _⌊his dwelling_⌋* place like the garden; he has ruined his appointed feasts; Yahweh has made them forget in Zion _⌊festival_⌋* and Sabbath, and he has despised in his anger king and priest. ⁷ The Lord has rejected his altar; he has rejected his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of its citadel fortresses.* They have cried out in the house of Yahweh like a day of an appointed feast. ⁸ Yahweh has planned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He measured with a line; he has not restrained his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to mourn; together they have languished away.

¹⁷ Yahweh has done what he has planned; he has fulfilled his promise that he ordained from the days of old; he has demolished and not shown mercy; he has made an enemy rejoice over you, he has exalted the _⌊might_⌋* of your foes. ¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord, "O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a river; day and night, do not give yourself relief, do not give your eyes rest. ¹⁹ "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord. Lift to him your hands, for the life of your children, who faint in starvation, at the head of all streets."

¹⁵ "Go away! Defiled!" they shout to them. "Go away! Go away! Do not touch!" so they left, they left; it was said among the nations, "_⌊They will no longer dwell with us_⌋."*

²³ Make a chain for the land; it is full of _⌊bloody crimes_⌋* and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses, and I will put to an end the pride of the mighty ones, and their sanctuaries will be defiled.

¹⁷ "Son of man,* the house of Israel, they were dwelling on their soil, and they defiled it with their way and with their deeds; like the uncleanness of menstruation was their way _⌊before me_⌋.*

⁸ Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations, like an object that no one desires.

²⁷ And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "I have sinned this time. Yahweh is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones.

³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and _⌊you will be looking on_⌋* _⌊longingly_⌋* for* them all day, _⌊but you will be powerless to do anything_⌋.* ³³ A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed _⌊for the rest of your lives_⌋.* ³⁴ You shall become mad _⌊because of what your eyes shall see_⌋.* ³⁵ Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which _⌊you will not be able to be healed_⌋,* from the sole of your foot and up to your crown. ³⁶ Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors* have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there. ³⁸ "You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress* them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.* ⁴⁰ There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives* shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be _⌊yours_⌋,* for they shall go into captivity.

⁴ The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just; he is a faithful God, and _⌊without injustice_⌋;* righteous and upright is he.

⁷ Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with _⌊their thumbs and big toes_⌋* cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; just as I have done, so God has repaid to me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

¹⁴ If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not be rebellious against _⌊what Yahweh says_⌋,* and both you and the king who rules over you will follow after Yahweh your God, all will be well. ¹⁵ But, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you rebel against _⌊what Yahweh says_⌋,* then the hand of Yahweh will be against you* as it was against your ancestors.*

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination; arrogance is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king!"

⁸ This house shall become a heap of ruins; all those passing by will be appalled by it and hiss, and they will say, 'On what account did Yahweh do this to this land and to this house?' ⁹ And they will say, 'Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors* out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.'"

²¹ He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,

¹³ After all that has come upon us for our evil practices and for our great guilt—you, our God, have held back less than our guilt deserved and you have given us a remainder such as this.

⁶ Please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying before you by day and by night for your servants, the _⌊Israelites_⌋,* and confessing the sins of the _⌊Israelites_⌋* that we have sinned against you. I and my father's house have sinned. ⁷ We have certainly offended you and have not kept the commands, regulations, and judgments that you have commanded your servant Moses. ⁸ Please, remember the word that you have commanded to your servant Moses, saying, 'If you act unfaithfully I will scatter you all among the nations.

²⁶ "But they rebelled and were rebellious against you and cast your law* behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn back to you, and they did great blasphemies.

³³ You are righteous in everything that has come on us, for you dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly.

¹¹ because they rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High,

⁷⁵ I know, O Yahweh, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you afflicted me.

¹⁷ Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and loyal in all his works.

¹ You will be in the right, O Yahweh, when I complain to you. Even so, let me speak my claims with you. Why does the way of the wicked succeed? All those who deal treacherously with treachery are at ease.

⁸ And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, '_⌊Why_⌋* has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?' ⁹ Then they will answer, 'Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and bowed down in worship to other gods, and served them.'"

²⁸ And it will happen, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must certainly drink! ²⁹ For look, on the city that is called _⌊by_⌋* my name I am beginning to inflict harm, and you indeed, will you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh of hosts.'

¹² For thus says Yahweh, "Look, those _⌊who are not condemned_⌋* to drink the cup must certainly drink it.* And are you the one who will go entirely unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must certainly drink it.*

¹² Is it nothing to you, _⌊all who pass by_⌋?* Look and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow,* which was dealt to me, which Yahweh inflicted on the _⌊day of his wrath_⌋.*

⁴² We ourselves have transgressed and rebelled, you have not forgiven.

²² But* look! A remnant will be left over in it, sons and daughters _⌊who will be brought out_⌋.* Look! They are coming out to you, and you will see their way, and with their deeds you will be consoled with respect to* the evil that I brought over Jerusalem, all of it that I brought over* it. ²³ And they will console you when you see their way and their deeds, and you will know that not for nothing I did all that I did in it," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

⁷ "_⌊Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord_⌋,* and on us is open shame, just as it is this day to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, _⌊those who are near and those who are far off_⌋* in all the lands to which you have driven them,* because of their infidelity which they displayed against you.

⁵ Yahweh is righteous in her midst; he does not do wickedness. _⌊Morning by morning_⌋* he renders his judgment; at dawn he does not fail, but an evil one knows no shame.

⁵ But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those under the law, in order that every mouth may be closed and the whole world may become accountable to God.

³ And they were singing the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
"Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God All-Powerful; righteous and true are your ways, King of the ages!* ⁴ Who would never fear, Lord, and glorify your name? For only you are holy, because all the nations* will come and worship before you, because your righteous deeds have been revealed."

⁵ And I heard the angel of the waters saying,
"You are righteous, the one who is and the one who was, the Holy One, because you have judged these things, ⁶ because they have poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; they are deserving!" ⁷ And I heard the altar saying,
"Yes, Lord God All-Powerful, true and righteous are your judgments."

¹³ "He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only* turned aside from me. ¹⁴ My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. ¹⁵ The sojourners in* my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. ¹⁶ I call to my servant, but* he does not answer; I must _⌊personally_⌋* plead with him. ¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to _⌊my own family_⌋.* ¹⁸ Little boys also despise me; when I rise, then* they talk against me. ¹⁹ All _⌊my intimate friends_⌋* abhor me, and these whom I have loved have turned against me.

²⁸ But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For according to the number of your towns are your gods, O Judah.

¹⁵ _⌊Therefore_⌋* thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophecy in my name though I have not sent them, yet they are saying, "Sword and famine will not be in this land." "By the sword and by the famine those prophets will perish. ¹⁶ And the people to whom they are prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem _⌊because of_⌋* the famine and the sword. And there will be no one who buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness. ¹⁷ "And you shall say to them this word,
'Let my eyes melt with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for with a great wound the virgin daughter of my people is broken, with a very incurable wound. ¹⁸ If I go out into the field, then look, those slain by the sword. And if I enter the city, then look, the sickness of the famine. For both prophet and priest wander around through the land, _⌊they do not know what is going on_⌋.'"*

¹¹ "For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ¹² "_⌊Therefore_⌋* their way will be to them like the slippery places, they will be pushed in the darkness, and they will fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them in the year of their punishment," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ¹³ "Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴ And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies,* and they make strong the hands of evildoers, so that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah." ¹⁵ _⌊Therefore_⌋* thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets,
"Look, I am going to let them eat wormwood and I will give them water of poison to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem went out ungodliness to all the land."

¹³ Why should you die—you and your people—by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ And you must not listen to the words of the prophets who are speaking to you, _⌊saying_⌋,* 'You must not serve the king of Babylon,' for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵ For I have not sent them," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "but they are prophesying in my name _⌊falsely_⌋,* so that I will drive them away. And you will perish—you and the prophets who are prophesying to you."

⁷ "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'This is what you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me, "Look, the army of Pharaoh, which set out to help you, is going to return to his land Egypt. ⁸ And the Chaldeans will return, and they will fight against this city, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire." ' ⁹ Thus says Yahweh: 'You must not deceive yourselves, _⌊saying_⌋,* "Surely the Chaldeans will go from us," for they will not go.

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphire their appearance. ⁸ Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood. ⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.

¹² They hang princes by their hand; they do not show respect before elders.

⁴⁰ " 'But* when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors* in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— ⁴¹ I myself* also* went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, ⁴² I will remember* my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

²⁵ From outside her boundaries the sword will make her childless, and from inside, terror; both for the young man and also the young woman, the infant along with the gray-headed man.

⁴⁷ and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,' ⁴⁸ if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors,* the city that you have chosen and the house that you* built for your name, ⁴⁹ then you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, their prayer and their plea, and you shall _⌊vindicate them_⌋.* ⁵⁰ You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, even for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them,

²⁷ My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me.

²⁷ "He will sing to men, and he will say, 'I have sinned and have perverted what is right, and it was not paid back to me.

³ For _⌊I myself know_⌋* my transgressions,* and my sin is ever before me. ⁴ Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil* in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge.

¹³ He who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes will obtain mercy.

¹¹ Therefore my _⌊heart moans_⌋* like a harp for Moab and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

¹⁴ Like a horse or a crane, so I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weak toward the height. Lord, I have oppression; lend me support!

³⁵ yet you say, 'But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.' Look, I am entering into judgment with you because of your saying, 'I have not sinned.'

¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh."

¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels! I writhe! The walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent, for I hear in my inner self the sound of a horn, the alarm of war.

²¹ For death has come into our windows, it has entered into our fortresses, to cut off the children* from the streets,* the young men from the public squares. ²² Speak, 'thus _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh:
"The dead body of the human will fall like dung upon the surface of the field, and like cut grain behind the reaper, and there is no one who gathers." '"

¹⁸ If I go out into the field, then look, those slain by the sword. And if I enter the city, then look, the sickness of the famine. For both prophet and priest wander around through the land, _⌊they do not know what is going on_⌋.'"*

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son, or the child of my delight? For _⌊as often as_⌋* I have earnestly spoken against him, I still remember him. _⌊Therefore_⌋* my bowels are turbulent for him, surely I will have compassion on him," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

³⁶ _⌊Therefore_⌋* my heart moans for Moab like the flute.* It moans for the people* of Kir-heres like the flute.* _⌊Therefore_⌋* the wealth they gained has perished.

¹⁵ The sword _⌊is outside_⌋,* and the plague and the famine _⌊are inside_⌋;* the one who is in the field will die by the sword, and the one who is in the city, famine and plague will devour him.

⁸ How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is disturbed* within me; _⌊all_⌋* my compassions are aroused.

¹⁸ I will set out and* go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and _⌊in your sight_⌋!* ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son! Make me like one of your hired workers.'

¹³ But the tax collector, standing far away, did not want even to raise his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than that one! For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

⁴¹ When I sharpen* _⌊my flashing sword_⌋,* and my hand takes hold* of it in judgment, _⌊I will take reprisals against my foes_⌋,* and my haters I will repay. ⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain, and captives* from the heads* of the leaders of the enemy.' ⁴³ Call for songs of joy, O nations, concerning his people,* for the blood of his servants he will avenge, _⌊and he will take reprisals against his foes_⌋,* and he will make atonement for his land, his people."

¹⁵ But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together; smiters whom I did not know gathered against me. They tore and did not cease.

¹³ The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming.

¹⁶ For I said, "Help, lest they rejoice over me, lest they boast against me when my foot slips."

⁷ Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, the ones who said, "Lay it bare! Lay it bare to its foundation!" ⁸ O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated, happy shall be he who pays back to you _⌊what you paid out to us_⌋.* ⁹ Happy shall be he who seizes and smashes your children against the rock.

¹ The oracle of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: ² Raise a signal on a bare hill, lift up your voice to them; wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen. ³ I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones, I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger, the _⌊ones who exalt over_⌋* my majesty. ⁴ A sound, a noise is on the mountains, the likeness of many people! A sound of the roar of the kingdoms, of nations gathering! Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle. ⁵ They are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy _⌊the whole earth_⌋.* ⁶ Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near; it will come like destruction from Shaddai!* ⁷ Therefore all hands will grow slack, and every human heart will melt, ⁸ and they will be dismayed. Pangs and labor pains will seize them; they will tremble like a woman giving birth. _⌊They will stare at one another_⌋,* _⌊their faces flushing_⌋.* ⁹ Look! The day of Yahweh is coming, cruel and wrath and the burning of anger, to make the earth a desolation, and he will destroy its sinners from it. ¹⁰ For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will keep back when it comes out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. ¹¹ And I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and I will bring the haughtiness of tyrants low. ¹² I will make humanity more rare than gold and humankind more than the gold of Ophir. ¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will quake from its place because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day his anger burns. ¹⁴ And this shall happen:
like a hunted gazelle or sheep _⌊with none to gather them_⌋,* they will each turn to his own people, and they will each flee to his own land.

²² Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, and your God pleads the cause of his people: "Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering. You shall not _⌊continue_⌋* to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer. ²³ And I will put it in the hand of your tormenters, who have said to _⌊you_⌋,* 'Bow down that* we may _⌊pass_⌋* over you!' And you have _⌊made_⌋* your back like the ground, and like the street for those who _⌊pass_⌋* over you."

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and I gave it* to all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me to drink: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings, and its officials, to make them a site of ruins, a horror, an object of hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; ¹⁹ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ and all the other* people; and all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistines—*Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, and Moab, and the _⌊Ammonites_⌋;* ²² and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland that is across the sea; ²³ and Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all those who are trimmed to the side; ²⁴ and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the other* people who dwell in the desert;* ²⁵ and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; ²⁶ and all the kings of the north, near and far, each one to his brother, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach, he will drink after them. ²⁷ "And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink and become drunk, and vomit, and fall, and you must not rise because of the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword that I am sending among you." '

¹⁶ _⌊Therefore_⌋* all those who devour you will be devoured, and all your foes, all of them will go into captivity, and those who plunder you will be as plunder, and all those who plunder you I will make as plunder.

¹ The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. ² Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah. ³ "Prepare small shield and shield, and approach for the battle! ⁴ Harness the horses and mount the steeds! And take your stand with helmets! Polish the spears! Put on the body armor! ⁵ Why do I see them terrified? They are turning back and their warriors are beaten down. And they have fled to a place of refuge and they do not turn back. Terror is from all around," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ⁶ The swift cannot flee, and the warrior cannot escape. They have stumbled and they have fallen, by the bank of the Euphrates River. ⁷ Who is this that rises like the Nile, like the rivers whose waters surge? ⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile, even like the rivers whose waters surge. And he says, "Let me rise, let me cover the earth, let me destroy cities, and the inhabitants in them." ⁹ Go up, O horses, and drive madly, O chariots,* and let the warriors go forth; Cush and Put, who wield the small shield, and Lud, who wield and bend the bow. ¹⁰ For that day is to the Lord Yahweh of hosts a day of retribution, to take revenge on his foes. And the sword will devour and be satisfied, and it will drink its fill of their blood, for a sacrifice is for the Lord Yahweh of hosts in the land of the north by the Euphrates River. ¹¹ Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin of the daughter of Egypt. _⌊In vain_⌋* you make use of many medicines; there is no healing for you. ¹² The nations have heard your shame, and your cry of lament fills the earth. For warrior has stumbled against warrior, together they have fallen, the two of them. ¹³ The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt: ¹⁴ "Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol, and proclaim in Memphis and in Tahpanhes, say, 'Take your stand and be prepared, for the sword will devour those all around you.' ¹⁵ Why are your bulls defeated? He did not stand because Yahweh thrust him down. ¹⁶ He multiplied the ones* stumbling. Furthermore, each one fell to his neighbor, and said, 'Stand up, and let us return to our people and to the land of our birth, _⌊because of_⌋* the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword of the oppressor.' ¹⁷ They will call there, 'Pharaoh, the king of Egypt is but a roar, _⌊he missed the opportunity_⌋.'* ¹⁸ _⌊As I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the king, Yahweh of hosts is his name, "one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea. ¹⁹ Pack your baggage for exile, O inhabitants* of the daughter of Egypt, for Memphis will become as a horror, and it will be destroyed, _⌊without_⌋* inhabitant. ²⁰ Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but a gadfly from the north will come against her. ²¹ Even her mercenaries in her midst are like calves of fattening, for they also have turned away, they have fled together. They stand not, for the day of their calamity has come, the time of their punishment. ²² Her sound is like a snake that glides away, for they march in force. And with axes they come to her like those who chop trees. ²³ They will cut down her forest," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "for _⌊it is impenetrable_⌋.* Yes, they are more numerous than locusts,* and _⌊they are without number_⌋.* ²⁴ The daughter of Egypt will be ashamed, she will be given into the hand of the people of the north." ²⁵ Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said, "Look, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶ And I will give them into the hand of the seekers of their lives,* and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his troops. But _⌊afterward_⌋* it will be inhabited, as in days of old," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ²⁷ "But as for you, my servant Jacob, you must not be afraid, and Israel, you must not be dismayed, for look, I am going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be quiet, and he will be at ease, and without one who makes him afraid. ²⁸ You must not be afraid, my servant Jacob," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "for I am with you. For I will make a complete destruction in all the nations where I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction, though I will chastise you to the measure, and I will certainly not leave you unpunished."

²⁷ Now was not Israel the laughingstock to you? Or was he found among thieves? For _⌊as often as_⌋* you spoke over him you shook your head.

¹¹ "Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,

¹⁵ Raise a war cry against her on all sides. _⌊She has surrendered_⌋.* Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done to others, so do to her.

³¹ "Look, I am against you, O arrogant one," _⌊declares_⌋* Lord Yahweh of hosts, "for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

²⁴ And I will repay Babylon, and all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their wickedness that they have done in Zion before your eyes," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

⁴⁹ Babylon must fall not only because of the slain ones of Israel, but also because of Babylon the slain ones of all the earth have fallen.

⁴ The roads of Zion are mourning because no one comes to the festival. All her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young women are worried, and she herself suffers bitterly.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously, thus she became an objection of derision; all those who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away.

¹⁵ They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, "A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?"

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup will pass, you will become drunk and strip yourself bare. ²² The punishment of your iniquity is completed, O daughter of Zion, your exile will not continue; but he will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will reveal your sins.

¹ And the word of Yahweh _⌊came_⌋* to me, _⌊saying_⌋,* ² "Son of man,* set your face toward the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* and prophesy against them, ³ and you must say to the _⌊Ammonites_⌋,* 'Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of your saying, 'Ah!' to my sanctuary when it was profaned, and to the land of Israel when it was* desolate, and to the house of Judah when they went into the exile, ⁴ therefore look! I am giving you to the people* of the East as a possession, and they will set up their encampments in you, and they will make in you their dwelling places; _⌊they themselves_⌋* will eat your fruit and _⌊they themselves_⌋* will drink your milk. ⁵ And I will make Rabbah as a pasture of camels and the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* as a haunt of flocks, and they will know that I am Yahweh." '" ⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of clapping your hand and stamping with your foot, and because you rejoiced in* yourself with all of your malice over the land of Israel, ⁷ therefore look! I stretched out my hand against you, and I will give you as plunder* to the nations, and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the countries, and I will wipe you out, and you will know that I am Yahweh." ⁸ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of Moab and Seir saying, 'The house of Judah is like all of the nations,' ⁹ therefore, look! I am opening the side of* Moab from the cities on its frontier, the glory of the land: Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim. ¹⁰ I will give it to the people* of the East in addition to the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* as a possession, so that the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* will not be remembered among the nations. ¹¹ And on Moab I will execute punishments, and they will know that I am Yahweh." ¹² Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of the doings of Edom in avenging himself with vengeance for* the house of Judah, and so they became very guilty and* they avenged themselves on them," ¹³ therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "so* I will stretch out my hand against Edom and I will cut off from it both human and animal, and I will make it a ruin from Teman and Dedan; they will fall by the sword. ¹⁴ And I will exact my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they will do in Edom according to my anger and according to my rage, and they will know my vengeance," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of the _⌊acting_⌋* of the Philistines in vengeance, so that they avenged themselves relentlessly with malice in themselves for destruction _⌊with everlasting hostility_⌋,* ¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am stretching out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Kerethites, and I will destroy the remainder of _⌊the seacoast_⌋.* ¹⁷ And I will execute on them great vengeance with punishments of rage, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I exact my vengeance on them!"

² "Son of man,* because* Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, 'Ah! The gates of the peoples are broken; it has swung open to me; I shall be filled, for it lies in ruins!'

¹⁴ Commotion, commotion in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision!

¹ The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds from Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Jehoash, two years _⌊before_⌋* the earthquake. ² And he said, "Yahweh roars from Zion and he utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither and the top of Carmel dries up." ³ Thus says Yahweh, "For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke the punishment,* because they threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron! ⁴ So I will send fire against Hazael's house and it will consume the citadel fortresses of Ben-Hadad. ⁵ I will break the gate bars of Damascus and I will cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven and the one who takes hold of the scepter of Beth Eden, and the people of Aram will go into exile to Kir," says Yahweh. ⁶ Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not revoke the punishment,* because they exiled a whole community, handing them over to Edom! ⁷ So I will send a fire against the wall of Gaza and it will devour its citadel fortresses. ⁸ And I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod and the one who takes hold of the scepter of Ashkelon. I will also turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish," says the Lord Yahweh. ⁹ Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Tyre and for four I will not revoke the punishment,* because they delivered up a whole community to Edom and they did not remember the covenant of brotherhood! ¹⁰ So I will send a fire against the wall of Tyre and it will devour its citadel fortresses." ¹¹ Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not revoke the punishment,* because he pursued his brother with the sword! He stifled his compassion and his anger tore them apart _⌊continually_⌋,* and he kept his rage forever. ¹² So I will send a fire against Teman and it will devour the citadel fortresses of Bozrah." ¹³ Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Ammon and for four I will not revoke the punishment,* because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory! ¹⁴ So I will kindle a fire against the wall of Rabbah and it will devour its citadel fortresses with a war cry on the day of battle, with a storm on the day of the violent tempest. ¹⁵ And their king will go into exile, he and his commanders together," says Yahweh.

¹² But you should not have gloated* over your brother's day, on the day of his misfortune, and you should not have rejoiced over the _⌊people_⌋* of Judah on the day of their perishing, and you should not have opened your mouth wide on the day of distress. ¹³ You should not have entered the gate of my people on the day of their disaster. You also should not have gloated over his misery on the day of his disaster, and you should not have stretched out your hands on the day of his disaster.

¹⁵ Woe to him who gives a drink to his neighbors, pouring out your wrath and also making them drunk in order to see their nakedness! ¹⁶ You will be sated with shame rather than glory. Drink also yourself, and expose yourself! The cup of the right hand of Yahweh will come around upon you and disgrace upon your glory. ¹⁷ For the violence of Lebanon will cover you, and the destruction of wild animals will shatter them on account of the blood of humanity, and the violence against the land, against a city and all the inhabitants in it.

⁶ Pay back to her as she herself also paid out, and _⌊pay back double_⌋* according to her deeds; in the cup that she mixed, mix double for her.

⁴ Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity. ⁵ Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you. They have _⌊provoked the builders to anger_⌋.*

¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his ancestors* be remembered before Yahweh, and let the sin of his mother not be blotted out. ¹⁵ Let them be before Yahweh continually, that he may cut off their* memory from the earth,

⁷ Therefore all hands will grow slack, and every human heart will melt,

¹⁸ "My comfort is gone from me, sorrow is on me, my heart is sick.

²⁵ Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the peoples that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, they have devoured and consumed him, and they have caused his settlement to be desolate.

²³ But you, O Yahweh, you know _⌊all their plans of assassination against me_⌋.* You must not make atonement for their iniquity, and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from _⌊before you_⌋.* But let them be overthrown _⌊before you_⌋.* Deal with them in the time of your anger.

³⁵ "May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon," the inhabitants* of Zion will say; and "My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," Jerusalem will say.

¹³ From heaven he sent fire, into my bones he let it descend. He spread out a net for my feet; he turned me back, he gave me devastation, fainting all day.

³¹ For if they do these things _⌊when the wood is green_⌋,* what will happen _⌊when it is dry_⌋?"*

¹³ Therefore I ask you* not to be discouraged at my afflictions on behalf of you, which are your glory.

¹⁰ and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "_⌊How long_⌋*, holy and true Lord, will you not judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?"