Oracle regarding the Negev

6 An oracle of the animals of the Negev:Through a land of trouble and distress,

• of lioness and lion,
  • [fn] them are snake and flying serpent;
• they carry their wealth on the[fn] of male donkeys
  • and their treasures on the humps[fn] of camels,

to a people that cannot profit them.

• 7 [fn][fn] help with vanity and emptiness, therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are sitting.”
• 8  and inscribe it on a scroll,
• [fn] it may be[fn]
  • forever, forever.
  • 9 is a people of rebellion, deceitful children, children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,
  • 10  and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us;
• speak smooth things to us,
  • see illusions,
  • 11 the way, turn aside from the path,

put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”

• 12 Therefore the holy one of Israel says this:“Because you are rejecting this word
  • and you trust in oppression and[fn]
  • and you rely on it,
  • 13  bulging out on a high wall[fn] suddenly, in an instant.
  • 14 [fn] breaks, that is crushed; he has no compassion,
• and no potsherd is found among its fragments[fn][fn] from the hearth,
  • or[fn] water from the cistern.”
• 15 For the Lord Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, said this:“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
  • your strength shall be in quietness and in trust.”

But[fn] you were not willing,

• 16 and you said,“No! For we will flee on horses!”[fn] Therefore you shall flee!
  • And, “We will ride on swift horses!”[fn] Therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
  • 17 [fn] a threat of one,[fn] of a threat of five you shall flee,
• until you are left like a flagstaff on[fn] of a mountain,
  • and like a signal on a hill.