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¹ If you will return, Yisra'el, says the LORD, if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed; ² and you shall swear, As the LORD lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³ For thus says the LORD to the men of Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns. ⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Yehudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵ Declare you in Yehudah, and publish in Yerushalayim; and say, Blow you the shofar in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. ⁶ Set up a standard toward Tziyon: flee for safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. ⁷ A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸ For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn't turned back from us. ⁹ It shall happen at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the Kohanim shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. ¹⁰ Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Yerushalayim, saying, You shall have shalom; whereas the sword reaches to the life. ¹¹ At that time shall it be said to this people and to Yerushalayim, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse; ¹² a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them. ¹³ Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined. ¹⁴ Yerushalayim, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵ For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Efrayim: ¹⁶ make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Yerushalayim, [that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Yehudah. ¹⁷ As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD. ¹⁸ Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my shalom; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the shofar, the alarm of war. ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment. ²¹ How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the shofar? ²² For my people are foolish, they don't know me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. ²³ I saw the eretz, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴ I saw the mountains, and, behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. ²⁵ I saw, and, behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were fled. ²⁶ I saw, and, behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities of it were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] before his fierce anger. ²⁷ For thus says the LORD, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. ²⁸ For this shall the eretz mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. ²⁹ Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. ³⁰ You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your life. ³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Tziyon, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.