6-8. God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave the orders:“Chop down her trees.Build a siege ramp against Jerusalem,A city full of brutality,bursting with violence.Just as a well holds a good supply of water,she supplies wickedness nonstop.The streets echo the cries: ‘Violence! Rape!’Victims, bleeding and moaning, lie all over the place.You’re in deep trouble, Jerusalem.You’ve pushed me to the limit.You’re on the brink of being wiped out,being turned into a ghost town.”
9. More orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:“Time’s up! Harvest the grapes for judgment.Salvage what’s left of Israel.Go back over the vines.Pick them clean, every last grape.
10-11. “I’ve got something to say. Is anybody listening?I’ve a warning to post. Will anyone notice?It’s hopeless! Their ears are stuffed with wax—deaf as a post, blind as a bat.It’s hopeless! They’ve tuned out God.They don’t want to hear from me.But I’m bursting with the wrath of God.I can’t hold it in much longer.
11-12. “So dump it on the children in the streets.Let it loose on the gangs of youth.For no one’s exempt: Husbands and wives will be taken,the old and those ready to die;Their homes will be given away—all they own, even their loved ones—When I give the signalagainst all who live in this country.”God’s Decree.
13-15. “Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar,little people and big people alike.Prophets and priests and everyone in betweentwist words and doctor truth.My people are broken—shattered!—and they put on Band-Aids,Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’But things are not ‘just fine’!Do you suppose they are embarrassedover this outrage?No, they have no shame.They don’t even know how to blush.There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottomand there’s no getting up.As far as I’m concerned,they’re finished.”God has spoken.
16-20. God’s Message yet again:“Go stand at the crossroads and look around.Ask for directions to the old road,The tried-and-true road. Then take it.Discover the right route for your souls.But they said, ‘Nothing doing.We aren’t going that way.’I even provided watchmen for themto warn them, to set off the alarm.But the people said, ‘It’s a false alarm.It doesn’t concern us.’And so I’m calling in the nations as witnesses:‘Watch, witnesses, what happens to them!’And, ‘Pay attention, Earth!Don’t miss these bulletins.’I’m visiting catastrophe on this people, the end resultof the games they’ve been playing with me.They’ve ignored everything I’ve said,had nothing but contempt for my teaching.What would I want with incense brought in from Sheba,rare spices from exotic places?Your burnt sacrifices in worship give me no pleasure.Your religious rituals mean nothing to me.”