¹“If you will return, O Israel,

Says the Lord,

Return to me,

And if you will remove your abominations from my presence,

And you will not be erratic,

²And you swear that the Lord lives,

In truth, in justice, in righteousness,

Then the nations will be blessed through him

And will boast in him.”

³For this is what the Lord says

To the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:

“Till yourselves some fallow land,

And do not sow in the thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,

And remove the foreskin of your heart,

You men of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem,

So that my fury does not go forth like fire,

And burn,

With no-one to quench it,

For the evil of your actions.

⁵Tell of it in Judah,

And announce it in Jerusalem,

And say, ‘Sound the ramshorn in the land.’

Proclaim it aloud and say,

‘Assemble and let us go to the fortified cities.

⁶Raise a standard in Zion,

Bring your household to safety;

Do not stand still.’

For I will bring evil from the north,

And great destruction.

⁷A lion came up from its thicket,

And the one who brings ruin in nations

Has set off and left his place

To make your land a desolation.

Your cities will be laid waste

Without an inhabitant.

⁸Because of this, gird yourselves with sackcloth,

Mourn and howl,

For the furious anger of the Lord

Has not receded from us.

⁹And it will come to pass on that day,

Says the Lord,

That the king will lose heart,

As will the officials,

And the priests will be astonished,

And the prophets will be astounded.”

¹⁰Then I said,

“Alas, my Lord the Lord,

You have truly really deceived this people and Jerusalem,

Saying, ‘You will have peace’,

But the sword has struck to the quick.”

¹¹At that time, it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem,

“There is a dry wind from the heights in the desert,

On its way to the daughter of my people,

Not for winnowing

And not for purifying.

¹²A full wind from these places will come for me,

And now I too will pronounce judgment on them.”

¹³Behold, he will come up as clouds,

And his chariots will be like a whirlwind.

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe is us,

For we are to be devastated.

¹⁴“Cleanse your heart from evil, Jerusalem,

So that you may be saved.

How long will your vain thoughts remain within you?

¹⁵For a voice is making an announcement from Dan

And proclaiming vanity from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶Remind the nations,

Look, proclaim to Jerusalem,

Watchmen are coming from a distant land,

And they have raised their voices

Against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷They are against her like guards around a field,

Because she has rebelled against me,

Says the Lord.

¹⁸Your way and your deeds have done these things to you

– This wickedness of yours,

For it is bitter,

Because it strikes at your heart.”

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish;

I writhe at the sides of my heart.

My heart is agitated in me;

I cannot be quiet,

For my inner being has heard the sound of the ramshorn

– The sound of war.

²⁰Destruction upon destruction is reported,

For all the land has been spoiled;

My tents were suddenly spoiled

– My encampment in a moment.

²¹How long will I see a standard?

How long will I hear the sound of a ramshorn?

²²“For my people are fools;

They do not know me.

They are witless sons,

And they are not sensible.

They are wise in doing wrong,

But they do not know how to do what is right.”

²³I have seen the land

And seen that it is desolate and deserted.

And concerning the heavens,

Their light is absent.

²⁴I have seen the hills

And seen that they were trembling,

And that all the hills have shaken.

²⁵I looked and saw that there was no man,

And that all the birds of the sky

Had flown away.

²⁶I looked and saw the well-cultivated plain

Looking like the desert,

And that all its cities had been demolished

Because of the Lord

– Because of the fury of his anger.

²⁷For this is what the Lord says:

“All the land will be a desolation,

But I will not bring it to a complete end.

²⁸On account of this the land will mourn,

And the heavens above will be melancholic,

For I have spoken;

I have purposed it,

And I do not repent,

And I will not revoke it.

²⁹At the sound of the horseman and the archer,

All the city will flee;

They will go to the thickets

And go up into the rocks.

The whole city will be abandoned,

And there will be no man inhabiting any of them.

³⁰And when you have been devastated,

What will you do?

Even if you dress in scarlet,

If you adorn yourself with golden ornaments,

If you make your eyes stand out with eye shadow,

You will beautify yourself in vain.

Your lovers will reject you;

They will seek your life.

³¹For I have heard a sound

Like a woman giving birth

– Distress like one bearing her firstborn –

The sound of the daughter of Zion,

Gasping and spreading her hands,

Saying, ‘Oh woe is me,

For my being is weary

With those who kill.’