An Invasion from the North
- 5 “Blow a horn through the land,
- [fn] and say,
- ‘Be gathered and let us go into the fortified cities.’
- 6 bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing,
- for I am bringing evil from the north,
- and a great destruction.
- 7 and a destroyer of nations has set out.
- He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror,
- your cities will go to ruin[fn] inhabitant.
- 8 with sackcloth,[fn] lament and wail,for[fn] of Yahweh has not turned back from us.
- 9 [fn] Yahweh, “the heart of the king and the heart of the officials will be destroyed,
- and the priests will be appalled,
- and the prophets will be astonished.”
10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It will be peace for you,’ while the sword reaches up to the throat.”
- [fn] the daughter of my people,
- not to winnow and not to cleanse,
- 12 [fn] these will come for me, now also I speak judgments against them.”
- 13 and his chariots are like the whirlwind,
- his horses are swifter than eagles,
- woe to us, for we are devastated.
- 14 O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved.
- [fn] will your thoughts of mischief
- dwell in your inner part?
- 15 is declaring from Dan, and is proclaiming disaster from the mountain of Ephraim.
- 16 Proclaim against Jerusalem,
- ‘Besiegers are coming[fn]
- and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.’
- 17 because she has rebelled against me,”[fn] Yahweh.
- 18 because of your way and your deeds.
- This is your doom, for it is bitter,
- yes, it has reached up to your heart.”
- 19 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 for all of the land is devastated.
- Suddenly my tents are devastated,
- my tent curtains in a moment.
- 21 the banner, and hear the sound of a horn?
- 22 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 and to the heavens, and they were without their light.
- 24 and all of the hills were jolted to and fro.
- 25 and all of the birds[fn] of the sky had fled.
- 26 was a desert,[fn]and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh,
- before the face of[fn]
- 27 yet I will not make a complete desolation.
- 28 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 [fn] 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.
- 30 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.
- 31 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[fn] before killers.”
- and look please, and take note,
- and search at its public squares,
- if you can find a person who does justice,
- who seeks honesty,
- so that I may forgive it.
- 2 [fn][fn] they swear falsely.”
- 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 They are just simple people, they are foolish,
- for they know not the way of Yahweh,
- the law[fn] of their God.
- 5 and let me speak with them,
- for they know the way of Yahweh,
- the law[fn] of their God.”
- However, they together have broken the yoke,
- they have torn to pieces the bonds.
- 6 the forest will kill them, A wolf from the desert plains[fn] 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 [fn] 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 neighed each to the wife of his neighbor.
- 9 things shall I not punish?”[fn] Yahweh, “and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?
- 10 but you must not make complete destruction.
- Remove her branches,
- for they are not to Yahweh.
- 11 have dealt utterly treacherously with me,”[fn] Yahweh.
- 12 ‘Not he,[fn] evil will not come on us,
- we will see neither sword nor famine.
- 13 and the word is not in them.’
- Thus it will be done to them.”
- 14 [fn] thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, “Because you have spoken this word,
- look, I am making my words in your mouth like a fire,
- and this people wood, and it will devour them.
- 15 am about to bring on you a nation from afar, O house of Israel,”[fn] Yahweh.
- “It is an enduring nation, it is[fn]
- A nation whose language you do not know,
- and you cannot understand what they speak.
- 16 is like an open tomb, all of them are warriors.
- 17 they will eat your sons and your daughters,
- they will eat your flock and your herd,
- they will eat your vine and your fig tree,
- they will smash with the sword[fn]
18 “But even in those days,” declares[fn] Yahweh, “I will not make you a complete destruction. 19 And then,[fn] when youpeople say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all of these things to us?’ Then you will say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that does not belong to you.’[fn]
- 20 and proclaim it in Judah, saying,
- 21 O foolish and[fn] people,[fn] but do not see,
- [fn] but do not hear.’
- 22 [fn] Yahweh, “Do you not tremble[fn]
- For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
- [fn] and it cannot pass over it,
- and they rise and fall loudly, but they cannot prevail,
- and its waves roar, but they cannot pass over it.
- 23 they have turned aside and have gone away.
- 24 ‘Let us fear please Yahweh our God,
- the one who gives the autumn rain[fn] andthe spring rain[fn] in its season,
- [fn] he keeps for us.’
- 25 and your sins have kept away the good from you.
- 26 they lie in wait like the hiding of fowlers,
- they set up a trap,
- they catch humans.
- 27 [fn] so their houses are full of fraud.
- [fn] they have become great,
- and they have become rich.
- 28 they have grown sleek,
- also,[fn]
- They do not judge with justice,
- the legal cause of the orphan,
- and the legal case of the poor,
- they do not defend.
- 29 things shall I not punish?”[fn] Yahweh, “and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?
30
- 31 [fn] and the priests rule[fn]
- and my people love it[fn] so much.
- But what will you do[fn]
- from the midst of Jerusalem.
- And in Tekoa blow a horn,
- and on Beth-haccherem lift up a signal,
- for evil looks down from the north,
- and a great destruction.
- 2 the daughter of Jerusalem, I will destroy.
- 3 they will pitch their tents against her all around,
- they will pasture, each his[fn]
- 4 [fn] war against her. Arise, and let us attack at noon.
- Woe to us, for the day turns,
- for the shadows of evening are lengthened.
- 5 and let us destroy her citadel fortresses.”
- 6 “Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
- This is the city that must be punished,
- its oppression is in its midst.
- 7 so she keeps cool her wickedness.
- Violence and destruction are heard within her,
- sickness and wounds[fn] are continually[fn]
- 8 O Jerusalem, lest I turn away from you in disgust,
- lest I make you a desolation,
- a land that is not inhabited.”
- 9 “They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine,
- turn back your hand over the branches like a grape-gatherer.
- 10 that they may hear?
- Look, their ears are[fn]
- and they are not able to listen attentively.
- Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn,
- they do not delight in it.
- 11 I struggle to hold it[fn] in.
- Pour it out on the children[fn] in the street,
- and on the assemblies[fn] of young men at the same time.
- For even husband with wife will get trapped,
- the old with him who is full of days.
- 12 their fields and their wives together.
- For I will stretch out my hand
- against the inhabitants of the land,”[fn] Yahweh.
- 13 [fn] makes profit for unlawful gain.
- And from the prophet to the priest,
- [fn] practices deceit.
- 14 [fn] ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.
- 15 Not at all, nor were they ashamed; they did not know to feel humiliated.
- [fn] they will fall among those who fall at the time I punish them,
- they will stumble,” says Yahweh.
- 16 the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the way of the good is,
- and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves.[fn]
- But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’[fn]
- 17 ‘Listen attentively to the sound of a horn.’
- But they said, ‘We will not listen attentively.’
- 18 [fn] hear, O nations, and know, O community,[fn]
- 19 look, I am about to bring disaster to this people,
- the fruit of their plans,
- because they have not listened attentively to my words,
- and my teaching, they have rejected it also.
- 20 is this to me? Frankincense comes from Sheba,
- and the precious spice reed from a distant land.
- Your burnt offerings are not[fn]
- your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”
- 21 [fn] thus says Yahweh: “Look, I am about to put before this people stumbling blocks,
- and they will stumble against them,
- fathers and children together,
- neighbor and his friend will perish.”
- 22 “Look, a people is coming from the land of the north,
- a great nation is woken up from the farthest part of the earth.
- 23 The bow and the short sword they grasp are cruel, and they show no mercy.
- Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride,
- drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion.”
- 24 our hands grow slack,
- anxiety has grasped us,
- pain as a woman who gives birth.
- 25 into the field, and you must not walk on the road,
- for[fn]
- terror is all around.
- 26 gird yourself with sackcloth,
- and roll about in the ashes in mourning,
- a mourning ceremony as for an only child.
- Make for yourself wailing of bitterness,
- for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- 27 so that you may know and put to the test their ways.[fn]
- 28 are stubborn rebels, going about talking slander.
- They are bronze and iron,
- they are all behaving corruptly.
- 29 The bellows[fn] are burned up,lead is consumed by fire.
- [fn][fn]
- but the wicked are not torn apart.
- 30 [fn] rejected silver, For Yahweh has rejected them.”