Return, all of you who have turned away from the LORD; he will heal you and make you faithful. You say, "Yes, we are coming to the LORD because he is our God.

But the worship of Baal, the god of shame, has made us lose flocks and herds, sons and daughters---everything that our ancestors have worked for since ancient times.

We turned away from you, but soon we wanted to return. After you had punished us, we hung our heads in grief. We were ashamed and disgraced because we sinned when we were young.'

But remember, O LORD, that your enemies laugh at you, that they are godless and despise you.

Remember the covenant you made with us. There is violence in every dark corner of the land.

The surrounding nations insult us; they laugh at us and mock us.

Lord, pay the other nations back seven times for all the insults they have hurled at you.

Be merciful to us, LORD, be merciful; we have been treated with so much contempt.

We have been mocked too long by the rich and scorned by proud oppressors.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down; there we wept when we remembered Zion.

Those who captured us told us to sing; they told us to entertain them: "Sing us a song about Zion."

People passing by the city look at you in scorn. They shake their heads and laugh at Jerusalem's ruins: "Is this that lovely city? Is this the pride of the world?"

The LORD has finally done what he threatened to do: He has destroyed us without mercy, as he warned us long ago. He gave our enemies victory, gave them joy at our downfall.

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look at us, and see our disgrace.

I will increase the yield of your fruit trees and your fields, so that there will be no more famines to disgrace you among the nations.

We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God; we have never obeyed his commands."

The rich people send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; they come back with their jars empty. Discouraged and confused, they hide their faces.

Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us and laugh at us.

I am always in disgrace; I am covered with shame

It is for your sake that I have been insulted and that I am covered with shame.

My devotion to your Temple burns in me like a fire; the insults which are hurled at you fall on me.

I dress myself in clothes of mourning, and they laugh at me.

But as for me, I will pray to you, LORD; answer me, God, at a time you choose. Answer me because of your great love, because you keep your promise to save.

May those who attack me be defeated and destroyed. May those who try to hurt me be shamed and disgraced.

May my enemies be covered with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe.

They will put on sackcloth and they will tremble all over. Their heads will be shaved, and they will all be disgraced.

Then our enemies will see this and be disgraced---the same enemies who taunted us by asking, "Where is the LORD your God?" We will see them defeated, trampled down like mud in the streets.

He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem;

Walk over these total ruins; our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.

They looked like woodsmen cutting down trees with their axes.

They wrecked your Temple and set it on fire; they desecrated the place where you are worshiped.

O God, the heathen have invaded your land. They have desecrated your holy Temple and left Jerusalem in ruins.

The enemies robbed her of all her treasures. She saw them enter the Temple itself, Where the LORD had forbidden Gentiles to go.

Look, O LORD! Why are you punishing us like this? Women are eating the bodies of the children they loved! Priests and prophets are being killed in the Temple itself !

"I will let foreigners rob them," says the LORD, "and lawbreakers will take all their wealth and defile it.

I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.

God said to them, "Defile the Temple. Fill its courtyards with corpses. Get to work!" So they began to kill the people in the city.

to give you Israelites this message: You are proud of the strength of the Temple. You like to look at it and to visit it, but the LORD is going to profane it. And the younger members of your families who are left in Jerusalem will be killed in war.

It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple.

Then I heard one angel ask another, "How long will these things that were seen in the vision continue? How long will an awful sin replace the daily sacrifices? How long will the army of heaven and the Temple be trampled on?"

And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly. The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared.

That ruler will have a firm agreement with many people for seven years, and when half this time is past, he will put an end to sacrifices and offerings. The Awful Horror will be placed on the highest point of the Temple and will remain there until the one who put it there meets the end which God has prepared for him."

Some of his soldiers will make the Temple ritually unclean. They will stop the daily sacrifices and set up The Awful Horror.

I was then given a stick that looked like a measuring-rod, and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshiping in the temple.

But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the heathen, who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months.