21. Therefore thus said Jehovah: Lo, I do give to this people stumbling blocks, And stumbled against them have fathers and sons together, The neighbour and his friend do perish.
22. Thus said Jehovah: Lo, a people hath come from a north country, And a great nation is stirred up from the sides of the earth.
23. Bow and javelin they take hold of, Fierce it [is], and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea doth sound, And on horses they ride, set in array as a man of war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion.
24. `We have heard its sound, feeble have been our hands, Distress hath seized us, pain as of a travailing woman.
25. Go not forth to the field, And in the way walk not, For a sword hath the enemy, fear [is] round about.
26. O daughter of My people, Gird on sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes, The mourning of an only one make for thee, A lamentation most bitter, For suddenly come doth the spoiler against us.
27. A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way.
28. All of them are turned aside by apostates, Walking slanderously--brass and iron, All of them are corrupters.
29. The bellows have been burnt, By fire hath the lead been consumed, In vain hath a refiner refined, And the wicked have not been drawn away.
30. `Silver rejected,' they have called to them, For Jehovah hath kicked against them!