Even those who are young grow weak; young people can fall exhausted.

When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing."

"The Lord laughed at all my strongest soldiers; He sent an army to destroy my young men. He crushed my people like grapes in a wine press.

"I called to my allies, but they refused to help me. The priests and the leaders died in the city streets, Looking for food to keep themselves alive.

My eyes are worn out with weeping; my soul is in anguish. I am exhausted with grief at the destruction of my people. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.

Hungry and thirsty, they cry to their mothers; They fall in the streets as though they were wounded, And slowly die in their mothers' arms.

Zion's young people were as precious to us as gold, but now they are treated like common clay pots.

Our young men are forced to grind grain like slaves; boys go staggering under heavy loads of wood.

The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky

But I will spread out my net and trap him in it. Then I will take him to the city of Babylon, where he will die without having seen it.

I will spread out a hunter's net and catch him in it. I will take him to Babylonia and punish him there, because he was unfaithful to me.

They were burned by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God, who has authority over these plagues. But they would not turn from their sins and praise his greatness.

and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not turn from their evil ways.

Jerusalem, wake up! Rouse yourself and get up! You have drunk the cup of punishment that the LORD in his anger gave you to drink; you drank it down, and it made you stagger.

You suffering people of Jerusalem, you that stagger as though you were drunk,

Because the LORD Almighty is angry, his punishment burns like a fire throughout the land and destroys the people, and it is each of us for ourselves.

The people of Manasseh and the people of Ephraim attack each other, and together they attack Judah. Yet even so the LORD's anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

Ever since I was young, I have suffered and been near death; I am worn out from the burden of your punishments.

Your furious anger crushes me; your terrible attacks destroy me.

Bitter suffering is all he has given me for food and drink.

He rubbed my face in the ground and broke my teeth on rocks.

will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb.

Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop!

I will make your oppressors kill each other; they will be drunk with murder and rage. Then all people will know that I am the LORD, the one who saves you and sets you free. They will know that I am Israel's powerful God."

When I kill these people like sacrifices, the birds and animals are to eat all the fat they can hold and to drink blood until they are drunk.