Read the Bible

¹ Flee for safety, you children of Binyamin, out of the midst of Yerushalayim, and blow the shofar in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beit-Hakkerem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction. ² The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Tziyon, will I cut off. ³ Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed everyone in his place. ⁴ Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵ Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. ⁶ For thus has the LORD of Hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast up a mound against Yerushalayim: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. ⁷ As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds. ⁸ Be instructed, Yerushalayim, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Yisra'el as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets. ¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word of the LORD is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it. ¹¹ Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days. ¹² Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD. ¹³ For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the Kohen everyone deals falsely. ¹⁴ They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Shalom, shalom; when there is no shalom. ¹⁵ Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says the LORD. ¹⁶ Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein]. ¹⁷ I set watchmen over you, [saying], Listen to the sound of the shofar; but they said, We will not listen.

¹⁸ Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them. ¹⁹ Hear, eretz: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. ²⁰ To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheva, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me. ²¹ Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish. ²² Thus says the LORD, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the eretz. ²³ They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Tziyon. ²⁴ We have heard the report of it; our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail. ²⁵ Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are on every side. ²⁶ Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us. ²⁷ I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way. ²⁸ They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. ²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰ Refuse silver shall men them, because the LORD has rejected them.