1"If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. And if you will put your detestable things away out of my sight, then you will not be removed."
2And you will swear, 'The LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. Then the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him they will glory.
3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your unploughed ground, and do not sow among thorns."
4"Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and you who live in Jerusalem. If you do not, my fury will come out like fire and burn so that no one can put it out, because of the evil of your deeds."
5Tell it in Judah, and make it known in Jerusalem. Say, "Blow the trumpet in the land." Cry out, gather together, and say, "Come together, and let us go into the fortified cities."
6Set up the banner toward Zion. Flee, do not stay, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction.
7The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations is on his way. He has gone out from his place to make your land empty. Your cities will be laid waste, with no one living in them.
8Because of this, put on sackcloth, weep and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us.
9On that day, says the LORD, the heart of the king will fail, and the heart of the princes. The priests will be stunned, and the prophets will be amazed.
10Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You will have peace,' while the sword reaches to the soul."
11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A dry wind from the bare heights in the wilderness blows toward the daughter of my people. It does not winnow, and it does not cleanse."
12"A full wind from those places will come for me. Now I will also pass sentence against them."
13Look, he comes up like clouds, and his chariots are like a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. How terrible for us, for we are ruined.
14O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, so that you may be saved. How long will your worthless thoughts stay inside you?
16Tell it to the nations. Look, make it known against Jerusalem: watchers are coming from a far country, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.
17Like men guarding a field, they are all around her, because she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.
18Your ways and your deeds have brought these things on you. This is your wickedness. It is bitter, and it reaches to your very heart.
19My bowels, my bowels! I am in pain at my very heart. My heart makes a noise within me. I cannot keep silent, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20Destruction on destruction is the cry, for the whole land is ruined. Suddenly my tents are ruined, and my curtains in a moment.
21How long must I see the banner, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22"For my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."
23I looked at the earth, and it was without form and empty. I looked at the heavens, and they had no light.
24I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills shook to and fro.
25I looked, and there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had flown away.
26I looked, and the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
27For this is what the LORD has said: "The whole land will be desolate, yet I will not make a full end of it."
28"Because of this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will grow black. For I have spoken it, I have planned it, and I will not change my mind, nor will I turn back from it."
29The whole city runs away from the noise of the horsemen and the archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is left empty, and no one lives in it.
30And when you are ruined, what will you do? Though you dress yourself in crimson, though you put on ornaments of gold, though you tear your face with paint, you make yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers will despise you. They will seek your life.
31For I have heard a cry like that of a woman in labour, the anguish of one giving birth to her first child. It is the voice of the daughter of Zion, weeping for herself, spreading out her hands, saying, "How terrible for me now, for my soul is worn out because of murderers."