¹³ “I will utterly consume them,” says Adonai.
    “There will be no grapes on the vine,
        and no figs on the fig tree,
        and even the leaf will wither,
        and what I gave them will pass away.”
¹⁴ “Why are we sitting here?
Assemble!
    Let us flee to the fortified cities
        and perish there!
    For Adonai Eloheinu has silenced us
        and given us poisoned water to drink.
    For we have sinned against Adonai.
¹⁵ We hoped for shalom,
    but it is no good,
    for a time of healing
        —and suddenly, terror!”

¹⁶ From Dan is heard
        the snorting of his horses.
    At the sound of his stallions neighing,
        the whole land quakes.
    For they come and devour
        the land and everything in it—
        the city and all who live there.
¹⁷ “For I am about to send serpents on you,
        vipers for which there is no charm,
        and they will bite you.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.

    “Why have they provoked Me with their graven images,
        with foreign idols?”

²⁰ “Harvest is past,
    summer is over,
    yet we are not saved.”

²¹ “Because of the brokenness of the daughter of my people,
        I am brokenhearted.
    I mourn—desolation grips me.
²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
    Then why has no healing gone up
        for the daughter of my people?
²³ If only my head were water
        and my eyes a fountain of tears,
    then I would weep day and night
        for the slain of the daughter of my people!
9 If only I had a travelers’ lodging place
        in the wilderness,
    then I might leave my people
        and get away from them!
    For they are all adulterers,
        a bunch of traitors.
² They bend their tongue like a bow.
    Lies, not faithfulness,
        prevail in the land.
    “For they go from evil to evil
    and do not know Me,” says Adonai.
³ Beware, everyone, of your neighbor!
    Don’t even trust a brother.
    For every brother grabs like Jacob
    and every neighbor spreads slander.
⁴ Everyone deceives his neighbor
    and does not speak the truth.
    They taught their tongue to speak lies.
    They wear themselves out doing wrong.
⁵ “You dwell in the midst of deceit.
    In deceit they refuse to know Me.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.

⁶ Therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
    “I am about to refine them and test them.
    For what else can I do
        for the daughter of My people?
⁷ Their tongue is a deadly arrow,
    speaking deceit.
    With his mouth
    each says shalom to his neighbor,
    while inwardly setting a trap for him.
⁸ For such things shall I not punish them?”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
    “Should I not avenge Myself
        on such a nation as this?”

⁹ For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing,
    a lament for the desert pastures.
    For they are so scorched
        that no one passes through—
        the lowing of cattle is not heard.
    The birds of the air have fled
        and the animals are gone.

¹⁰ “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
        a lair for jackals.
    I will make the cities of Judah
        a wasteland without inhabitant.
¹¹ Who is the one wise enough to understand this?
    To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken
        that he may explain it?
    Why is the land ruined,
        laid waste like a wilderness,
        so that no one passes through?”

¹⁶ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
    “Pay attention! Call the dirge-singers and let them come.
    Send for the most skillful wailers and let them come!”
¹⁷ “Let them come quickly
        and lift up a wailing over us
    so our eyes may run down with tears
        and our eyelids gush with water.”
¹⁸ For a wailing voice is heard from Zion:
        “How we are ruined!
        We are utterly ashamed—
        we have forsaken the land,
        for they tore down our dwellings.”
¹⁹ Now, hear the word of Adonai, O women,
        let your ear receive the word of His mouth.
    Teach your daughters wailing
        and everyone her neighbor a dirge.
²⁰ For death has climbed through our windows.
    It has entered into our palaces
        to cut off children from the street
        and young men from the squares.”

²¹ “Say this,” declares Adonai.
    “The carcasses of men will lie
    like dung on the open field,
    like cut grain behind the reaper,
        with no one gathering them.”

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
and grieved Him in the desert!
⁴¹ Again and again they tested God,
and pained the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember His hand—
the day He redeemed them from the foe,
⁴³ when He displayed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the plain of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers into blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent on them flies to devour them,
    and frogs to devastate them,
⁴⁶ and gave their crops to the grasshopper,
    and their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail,
    and their sycamore trees with frost,
⁴⁸ and gave over their cattle to the hail,
    and their flocks to fiery bolts.
⁴⁹ He sent on them the fury of His anger
—wrath and indignation and trouble—
a band of evil angels.
⁵⁰ He cleared a path for His anger.
He spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² But He brought His people out like sheep,
and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them to safety, so they did not fear,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ Then He brought them to His holy territory,
to the mountain His right hand had gotten.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them,
and allotted them an inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

²⁷ Finish your outdoor work
and get your fields ready.
After that, build your house.