The evils that threaten Jerusalem. She is invited to return, and walk
in the good way, and not to rely on sacrifices without obedience.
6:1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of
Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard
over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great
destruction.
6:2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate
woman.
6:3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have
pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them
that are under his hand.
6:4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe
unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are
grown longer.
6:5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.
6:6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a
trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression
is in the midst of her.
6:7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her
wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity
and stripes are continually before me.
6:8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee,
lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
6:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of
Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a
grapegatherer into the basket.
6:10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may
hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear:
behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and they
will not receive it.
6:11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with
holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of
the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient
and he that is full of days.
6:12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands
and their wives together: for I will stretch forth my hand upon the
inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
6:13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to
covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty
of deceit.
6:14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.
6:15. They were confounded, because they committed abomination: yea,
rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how
to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time
of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.
6:16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for
the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall
find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.
6:17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the
sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.
6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great
things I will do to them.
6:19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the
fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and
they have cast away my law.
6:20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the
sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not
acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.
6:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction
upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall,
neighbour and kinsman shall perish.
6:22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the
north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.
6:23. They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will
have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall
mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of
Sion.
6:24. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish
hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.
6:25. Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the
sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.
6:26. Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle
thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter
lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
6:27. I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou
shalt know, and prove their way.
6:28. All these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they
are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.
6:29. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the
founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.
6:30. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.