1. Then said Adonai to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My soul could not be toward this people. Cast them out of My presence, and let them go out!”
2. It will come to pass, when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ Then You will tell them, thus says Adonai: “Those for death—to death! Those for the sword—to the sword! Those for famine—to famine! Those for exile—to exile!
3. I have appointed over them four kinds” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.
4. “So I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5. “Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6. You have cast Me off” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “You keep going backward! So I stretch out My hand against you and will destroy you. I am weary with relenting.
7. I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children and destroy My people, since they do not repent of their ways.
8. Their widows will increase before Me more than the sand of the seas, I will bring a destroyer at noonday against the mother of a young man. Suddenly I will bring down on her anguish and terrors.
9. She who bore seven languishes. She breathes out her soul. Her sun sets while it is yet day. She is shamed and humiliated. Their survivors I give to the sword before their enemies.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
10. Oy to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me— a man of strife and conflict to all the land! I did not lend or borrow, yet everyone curses me.
11. Adonai said: “Surely I will release you for good. Surely I will make the enemy appeal to you in a time of trouble, in a time of affliction.
12. Can anyone smash iron— iron and bronze from the north?