¹ Take your goods into safety, ye sons of Benjamin out of the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa, blow ye a horn, And on Beth-haccherem, raise a fire-signal,—For calamity, hath looked out from the North, Even a great destruction.

² To a comely and delicate woman, have I likened the daughter of Zion:

³ Against her, shall come shepherds with their flocks; They have pitched against her their tents, round about, They tend their flocks every one near at hand.

⁴ Hallow ye against her a war, Arise! and let us go up in broad noon. Woe to us, for the day, hath turned, for the shadows of evening, stretch along.

⁵ Arise! and let us go up in the night, And let us destroy her palaces.

⁶ For, Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, Cut ye down timber, And cast up, against Jerusalem a mound,—That, is the city to be punished! There is, nothing, but oppression in her midst;

⁷ Like the casting forth by a well of its waters, So, hath she cast forth her wickedness,—Violence and destruction, are heard in her, Before my face, continually, are suffering and smiting.

⁸ Receive thou correction O Jerusalem, Lest my soul be torn from thee,—Lest I make thee A desolation, A land not habitable.

⁹ Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean as a vine the remnant of Israel—Turn back thy hand, as a grape gatherer over the tendrils.

¹⁰ Unto whom, can I speak—and bear witness, that they may hear? Lo! uncircumcised, is their ear, that they cannot attend,—Lo! the word of Yahweh, hath become to them a reproach, they take no delight therein.

¹¹ So then, with the indignation of Yahweh, am I full, I am too weary to hold it in, [I am constrained] to pour it out, upon the boy in the street, and upon the circle of young men, together,—For, even husband with wife, will be captured, The elder with him who is full of days;

¹² And their houses shall be turned over to others, Fields and wives together,—For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, Declareth Yahweh.

¹³ For, from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, Every one, graspeth with greed,—And from the prophet even unto the priest, Every one, dealeth, falsely;

¹⁴ And so they have healed the grievous wound of my people, slightly, Saying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace,

¹⁵ Were they led to turn pale because an abominable thing, they had done! Nay! they did not, at all turn pale, Nay! they did not so much as know how, to exhibit shame, Therefore, shall they fall among them who are falling, In the time when I punish them, shall they be overthrown, Saith Yahweh.

¹⁶ Thus saith Yahweh—Stand ye at the ways—and see, And ask for the paths of age-past times, Where is the good way? And walk therein, And ye shall find rest to your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein] !

¹⁷ Therefore will I raise up over you, watchmen, Give ye heed to the sound of a horn,—But they said, We will not give heed!

¹⁸ Therefore, hear O ye nations,—And take knowledge O assembly, Of that which befalleth them:

¹⁹ Hear thou—O earth, Lo! I, am bringing in Calamity against this people the fruit of their own devices,—For unto my words, have they not given heed, And as for my law, they have rejected it.

²⁰ What then is it to me that—Frankincense from Shebah come in, or Sweet cane from a land afar off? Your own ascending-offerings, are not acceptable, Nor are, your sacrifices, pleasing to me.

²¹ Wherefore, Thus, saith Yahweh, Behold me! laying before this people, stumblingblocks,—And fathers and sons together, shall stumble against them, The neighbour and his friend, shall perish.

²² Thus, saith Yahweh, Lo! a people coming in from the land of the North,—Yea a great nation, shall be stirred up out of the remote parts of the earth:

²³ Bow and javelin, shall they grasp, Cruel, is he! So they will not have compassion, Their voice, like the sea, will roar, And on horses, will they ride,—Arrayed each one, like a man for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Zion!

²⁴ We have heard the report thereof, Relaxed are our hands,—Anguish, hath taken hold on us, Pangs, as on her that is giving birth.

²⁵ Do not go out into the field, And in the road, do not walk,-Because a sword, hath the foe,—Terror round about!

²⁶ O daughter of my people Gird thee with sackcloth and roll thyself in ashes,—The mourning for an only son, make thou for thyself, Most bitter lamentation! For suddenly, shall the destroyer come upon us.

²⁷ An assayer, have I set thee amongst my people, of gold-ore,—That thou mayest note and try their way:

²⁸ They all, are rebels of rebels, Slander-walkers [They are] bronze and iron! As for them all, corrupters, they are!

²⁹ Scorched are the bellows, By fire, is lead wont to be, consumed,—In vain, hath he gone on refining, For the wicked, have not been drawn out:

³⁰ Rejected silver, are they called, For, Yahweh, hath rejected them.