² noisy,^[b] tumultuous city,
    exultant town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
    nor are they dead from battle.
³ All of your rulers have fled together without a bow;
    all of you who were found^[c] were captured.
They were captured together;
    they had fled far away.

“Look away from me,
    let me weep bitterly;^[d]
you must not insist on comforting me
    for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
⁵ For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion^[e] in the valley of vision,
    a tearing down of walls^[f] and a cry for help to the mountains.^[g]
6 And Elam lifted up the quiver,
        with chariots^[h] of men^[i] and cavalry.
    And Kir uncovered the shield.

the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots,^[j]
    and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.
⁸         And he uncovered the covering of Judah.
And you looked, on that day, to the weapons^[k] of the House of the Forest,
⁹     and you saw that the breaches in the walls of the city of David were many,
        and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ And you counted the houses of Jerusalem,
    and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
¹¹         And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool,
but you did not look to its maker,
    and you did not see the one who created it long ago.^[l]

for weeping and mourning,
    and for baldness and girding with^[m] sackcloth.
¹³ But look! Joy and gladness,
    the killing of oxen^[n] and the slaughtering of sheep,
the eating of meat and the drinking of wine!
    “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

“Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!”
    says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.