16. Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness,before your feet stumbleon the mountains at dusk.You wait for light,but He brings darkest gloom and makes thick darkness.
17. But if you will not listen,my innermost being will weep in secretbecause of your pride.My eyes will overflow with tears,for the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
18. Say to the king and the queen mother: Take a humble seat,for your glorious crownshave fallen from your heads.
19. The cities of the Negev are under siege;no one can help them.All of Judah has been taken into exile,taken completely into exile.
20. Look up and seethose coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you,the sheep that were your pride?
21. What will you say when He appointsclose friends as leaders over you,ones you yourself trained?Won’t labor pains seize you, as they do a woman in labor?
22. And when you ask yourself,“Why have these things happened to me? ”It is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been stripped off, your body exposed.
23. Can the Cushite change his skin,or a leopard his spots?If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil.
24. I will scatter you like drifting chaff before the desert wind.
25. This is your lot,what I have decreed for you —this is the Lord’s declaration —because you have forgotten Me and trusted in Falsehood.
26. I will pull your skirts up over your faceso that your shame might be seen.