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¹“If you will return, Israel,” declares the LORD, “Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detestable things from My presence, And will not waver,

²And if you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ In truth, in justice, and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will boast.”

³For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: “Break up your uncultivated ground, And do not sow among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskins of your hearts, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will spread like fire And burn with no one to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds.”

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let’s go Into the fortified cities.’

⁶Raise a flag toward Zion! Take refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, And great destruction.

⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations has set out; He has gone out from his place To make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins, Without an inhabitant.

⁸For this, put on sackcloth, Mourn and wail; For the fierce anger of the LORD Has not turned away from us.”

⁹“And it shall come about on that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will fail; and the priests will tremble, and the prophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Oh, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; yet a sword touches the throat.”

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse,

¹²a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”

¹³“Behold, he goes up like clouds, And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!”

¹⁴Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, So that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶“Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Enemies are coming from a remote country, And they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷Like watchmen of a field they are against her all around, Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the LORD.

¹⁸Your ways and your deeds Have brought these things upon you. This is your evil. How bitter! How it has touched your heart!”

¹⁹My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot keep silent, Because, my soul, you have heard The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.

²⁰Disaster upon disaster is proclaimed, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, And my curtains in an instant.

²¹How long must I see the flag And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For My people are foolish, They do not know Me; They are foolish children And have no understanding. They are skillful at doing evil, But they do not know how to do good.”

²³I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a formless and desolate emptiness; And to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills jolted back and forth.

²⁵I looked, and behold, there was no human, And all the birds of the sky had fled.

²⁶I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

²⁷For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

²⁸For this the earth will mourn, And the heavens above will become dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I have not changed My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horseman and archer every city flees; They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; Every city is abandoned, And no one lives in them.

³⁰And you, desolate one, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, Although you adorn yourself with jewelry of gold, Although you enlarge your eyes with makeup, In vain you make yourself beautiful. Your lovers despise you; They seek your life.

³¹For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child. The voice of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe to me, for I faint before murderers.”

¹“Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, And look and take notice. And seek in her public squares, If you can find a person, If there is one who does justice, who seeks honesty, Then I will forgive her.

²And although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ Certainly they swear falsely.”

³LORD, do Your eyes not look for honesty? You have struck them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, But they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than rock; They have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor, They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the LORD Or the judgment of their God.

⁵I will go to the great And speak to them, For they know the way of the LORD And the judgment of their God.” But together they too have broken the yoke And burst the restraints.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them, A wolf of the deserts will destroy them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces, Because their wrongdoings are many, Their apostasies are numerous.

⁷“Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed adultery And stayed at the prostitute’s house.

⁸They were well-fed lusty horses, Each one neighing at his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD, “And shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD’S.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD.

¹²They have lied about the LORD And said, “Not He; Misfortune will not come upon us, Nor will we see sword or famine.

¹³The prophets are as wind, And the word is not in them. So it will be done to them!”

¹⁴Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of armies says: “Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words fire in your mouth, And this people wood, and it will consume them.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, you house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an enduring nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open grave, All of them are warriors.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and your food; They will devour your sons and your daughters; They will devour your flocks and your herds; They will devour your vines and your fig trees; They will demolish your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

¹⁸“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a complete destruction of you.

¹⁹And it shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Now hear this, you foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see, Who have ears but do not hear.

²²Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An eternal limit, and it will not cross over it. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; Though they roar, they will not cross over it.

²³But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.

²⁴They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest.”

²⁵Your wrongdoings have turned these away, And your sins have kept good away from you.

²⁶For wicked people are found among My people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap, They catch people.

²⁷Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.

²⁸They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, so that they may be successful; And they do not defend the rights of the poor.

²⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?’ declares the LORD, ‘Or shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?’

³⁰“An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land:

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it this way! But what will you do when the end comes?