6 “Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great destruction. ² I will cut off the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion. ³ Shepherds with their flocks will come to her. They will pitch their tents against her all around. They will feed everyone in his place.”

⁴ “Prepare war against her! Arise! Let’s go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵ Arise! Let’s go up by night, and let’s destroy her palaces.” ⁶ For Yahweh of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She is wholly oppression within herself. ⁷ As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me. ⁸ Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”