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For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, And moan like the daughters of owls.

For her wounds are incurable; For it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, Even to Jerusalem.

For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, Because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

Shave your heads, And cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; For they have gone into captivity from you!

Therefore thus says Yahweh: "Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, From which you will not remove your necks, Neither will you walk haughtily; For it is an evil time.

Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, Because of uncleanness that destroys, Even with a grievous destruction.

I said, "Please listen, you heads of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel: Isn't it for you to know justice?

Who also eat the flesh of my people, And flay their skin from off them, And break their bones, And chop them in pieces, as for the pot, And as flesh within the caldron.

Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, "Peace!" and whoever doesn't provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

The seers shall be put to shame, And the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; For there is no answer from God."

But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Yahweh, And of judgment, and of might, To declare to Jacob his disobedience, And to Israel his sin.

Her leaders judge for bribes, And her priests teach for a price, And her prophets of it tell forturnes for money: Yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, Isn't Yahweh in the midst of us? No disaster will come on us.

Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, And Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, And the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

Many nations will go and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, And to the house of the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, And we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion will go forth the law, And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem;

But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; And no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of Yahweh of Hosts has spoken.

Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, daughter of Zion, Like a woman in travail; For now you will go forth out of the city, And will dwell in the field, And will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

But they don't know the thoughts of Yahweh, Neither do they understand his counsel; For he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.

Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; For I will make your horn iron, And I will make your hoofs brass; And you will beat in pieces many peoples: And I will devote their gain to Yahweh, And their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, In the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: And they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.