6. For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She [is] the city to be inspected, Wholly--she is oppression in her midst.
7. As the digging of a well, is [for] its waters, So she hath digged [for] her wickedness, Violence and spoil is heard in her, Before My face continually [are] sickness and smiting.
8. Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.
9. Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They surely glean, as a vine, the remnant of Israel, Put back thy hand, as a gatherer to the baskets.
10. To whom do I speak, and testify, and they hear? Lo, their ear [is] uncircumcised, And they are not able to attend. Lo, a word of Jehovah hath been to them for a reproach, They delight not in it.
11. And with the fury of Jehovah I have been filled, (I have been weary of containing,) To pour [it] on the suckling in the street, And on the assembly of youths together, For even husband with wife are captured, An elder with one full of days,
12. And their houses have been turned to others, Fields and wives together, For I stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah.
13. For from their least unto their greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, And from prophet even unto priest, Every one is dealing falsely,
14. And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, `Peace, peace!' and there is no peace.
15. They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah.
16. Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where [is] this--the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, `We do not go.'
17. And I have raised up for you watchmen, Attend ye to the voice of the trumpet. And they say, `We do not attend.'
18. Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O company, That which [is] upon them.
19. Hear, O earth, lo, I am bringing evil on this people, The fruit of their devices, For to My words they gave no attention, And My law--they kick against it.
20. Why [is] this to Me? frankincense from Sheba cometh, And the sweet cane from a land afar off, Your burnt-offerings [are] not for acceptance, And your sacrifices have not been sweet to Me.
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.