¹“Bring your household to safety,

You sons of Benjamin,

From the heart of Jerusalem.

And sound the ramshorn in Tekoa,

And light a signal fire in Beth-Haccerem,

For trouble is impending from the north,

And a great catastrophe.

²I have likened the daughter of Zion

To a fair and delicate woman.

³Shepherds will come to her with their flocks,

They will pitch their tents near her round about;

Each one will pasture in his place.”

⁴“Sanctify a war against her;

Arise, we will go up at midday.”

“Woe to us, for the day has advanced,

For the evening shadows are lengthening.”

⁵“Arise, and let us go up in the night,

And destroy her palaces.”

⁶For this is what the Lord of hosts says:

“Cut down wood,

And throw up a rampart against Jerusalem.

She is the city which will be visited.

There is nothing but oppression inside her.

⁷As a cistern keeps its water cool,

So she has kept her wickedness cool.

Violence and plundering are heard within her;

Before me are sickness and wounding continually.

⁸Be chastised, Jerusalem,

So that I myself do not become alienated from you,

So that I do not make you a desolation

– An uninhabited land.”

⁹This is what the Lord of hosts says:

“They will certainly glean out the remnant of Israel,

As with a vine.

Saying, ‘Draw your hand back to the baskets,

As a vine reaper does.’

¹⁰To whom can I speak and testify,

And they will hear?

Look, their ears are uncircumcised,

And they are unable to listen.

Look, the word of the Lord came to them as a reproach;

They did not delight in it.

¹¹And I am full of the fury of the Lord;

I am weary of enduring it.

‘Heap it up

On a child out of doors,

And on a secret meeting of young men together’,

For even a man and wife will be taken

And an old man with him who is full of days.

¹²And their houses will be transferred to others

– Fields and wives together –

For I will stretch out my hand over the inhabitants of the land,

Says the Lord.

¹³For from the least of them to the greatest of them,

Every one of them defrauds for unjust gain,

And among both prophet and priest

Every one acts falsely.

¹⁴And they had an easy way

Of healing the demise of my people,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace’,

When there was no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they committed an abomination?

They were not ashamed at all,

Nor did they have a sense of ignominy,

Which is why they will be among those who fall.

At the time when I visit them,

They will stumble,

Says the Lord.”

¹⁶This is what the Lord says:

“Stand on the ways and see,

And ask for the age-old paths;

Ask which way is the right one,

And walk on it,

And find rest for yourselves.

But they said,

‘We will not walk there.’

¹⁷And I set up watchmen over you,

Who said,

‘Listen to the sound of the ramshorn’,

But they said,

‘We will not listen.’

¹⁸Therefore hear, O nations,

And know, O congregation,

What is to happen among them.

¹⁹Hear O earth,

I am about to bring trouble to this people

– The fruit of their thoughts –

For they have not listened to my words,

And as for my law,

They have rejected it.

²⁰What is this to me that frankincense should come from Sheba?

And fine cinnamon from a distant country?

Your burnt offerings are not a delight,

And your sacrifices do not please me.”

²¹That is why this is what the Lord says:

“I am about to put stumbling blocks before this people,

And fathers and sons will stumble at them together;

A neighbour and his friend will perish.”

²²This is what the Lord says:

“Look, a people is coming from the land of the north,

And a great nation will be awakened

From the remote parts of the earth.

²³They will wield bow and spear;

They are cruel,

And they will not show mercy.

Their voice roars like the sea,

And they ride on horses.

They are mobilized as men ready for war against you,

O daughter of Zion.”

²⁴We have heard of their fame,

Our hands have become limp,

And adversity has taken hold of us,

As has writhing like a woman giving birth.

²⁵Do not go out into the field,

And do not walk on the road,

For the enemy has a sword,

And there is fear all round.

²⁶O daughter of my people,

Gird yourself with sackcloth,

And roll in ashes.

Occupy yourself with mourning as for an only son

– With bitter lamentation –

For the destroyer will come upon us suddenly.

²⁷“I have made you an assayer

And a fortification among my people,

So that you may know and examine their way.

²⁸They are all inveterate rebels,

Who go about slandering.

They are copper and iron;

They are all ruinous people.

²⁹There is burning with bellows;

In the fire, lead is consumed.

The refiner refines in vain,

And the wicked are not drawn off.

³⁰They will be called rejected silver,

For the Lord has rejected them.”