“Such as are for death, to death;
such as are for the sword, to the sword;
such as are for the famine, to the famine;
and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’

⁵ For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
    Who will mourn you?
    Who will come to ask of your welfare?
⁶ You have rejected me,” says Yahweh.
    “You have gone backward.
Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you
    and destroyed you.
    I am weary of showing compassion.
⁷ I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land.
    I have bereaved them of children.
I have destroyed my people.
    They didn’t return from their ways.
⁸ Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas.
    I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday.
    I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
⁹ She who has borne seven languishes.
    She has given up the spirit.
Her sun has gone down while it was yet day.
    She has been disappointed and confounded.
    I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says Yahweh.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife,
    and a man of contention to the whole earth!
I have not lent, neither have men lent to me;
    yet every one of them curses me.

“Most certainly I will strengthen you for good.
    Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil
    and in the time of affliction.
¹² Can one break iron,
    even iron from the north, and bronze?
¹³ I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price,
    and that for all your sins,
    even in all your borders.
¹⁴ I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know;
    for a fire is kindled in my anger,
    which will burn on you.”

¹⁵ Yahweh, you know.
    Remember me, visit me,
    and avenge me of my persecutors.
You are patient, so don’t take me away.
    Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
¹⁶ Your words were found,
    and I ate them.
Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart,
    for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
¹⁷ I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice.
    I sat alone because of your hand,
    for you have filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual,
    and my wound incurable,
    which refuses to be healed?
Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook,
    like waters that fail?

“If you return, then I will bring you again,
    that you may stand before me;
and if you take out the precious from the vile,
    you will be as my mouth.
They will return to you,
    but you will not return to them.
²⁰ I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall.
    They will fight against you,
    but they will not prevail against you;
for I am with you to save you
    and to deliver you,” says Yahweh.
²¹ “I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
    and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.”