Her oppressors have become the chief; her enemies are at ease; for Jehovah has afflicted her for the multitude of her sins. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

Behold, O Jehovah, for I am in distress; my stomach is upset; my heart churns within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves; at home it is like death.

When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You have become angry with them and delivered them to the enemy, and they have taken them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near;

yet when they have returned in their minds in the land where they have been carried captive, and have repented in their hearts, and made supplication to You in the land of those holding them captive, saying, We have sinned and done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will send away from before My face; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

Then they will answer, Because they have forsaken Jehovah their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken up with other gods, and bowed down to them and served them; therefore Jehovah has brought all this evil upon them.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear.

No one calls for justice, nor does anyone plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.

Their webs shall not become garments, nor shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their paths. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them shall not know peace.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places like dead men.

For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

They all stubbornly rebel, walking in slanders; they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

Son of man, when a land sins against Me by acting treacherously unfaithfully, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of food, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts,

Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, and I cut off man and beast from it,

Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast,

For thus says the Lord Jehovah: How much more shall it be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem; the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence; to cut off man and beast from it!

And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations!

You are guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all lands.

Behold, the rulers of Israel: each one was in you by his power to shed blood in you.

You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.

In you men uncover the nakedness of their fathers; in you they humble women during their menstrual impurity.

In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and will do it.

And I will make them a horror to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

and I will deliver them over in horror into all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, for a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, there in all the places where I shall drive them.

Therefore thus says Jehovah: You have not heeded Me to proclaim liberty each man to his brother, and each man to his neighbor! Behold, I proclaim liberty for you, says Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. And I will cause you to be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah: Bring up an assembly against them, give them up to terror and plunder.

They cried out to them, Depart! Unclean! Depart, depart! Do not touch us! When they fled and wandered, they said among the nations, They will not continue to live there.

The face of Jehovah has scattered them out; He will no longer have regard for them; they did not respect the persons of the priests, nor show favor to the elders.

Rulers were hung up by the hand; the presence of elders was not honored.

The elders have ceased gathering at the gate, the young men from their music.

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe unto us, for we have sinned.

Therefore Jehovah the God of Israel says: I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now Jehovah says: Far be it from Me! For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of Uz. The cup also shall pass through unto you; you shall become drunk and stripped naked.

Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen; I will take vengeance and I will not meet you as a man.

And if you say in your heart, Why have these things come upon me? It is because of the greatness of your iniquity; your skirts have been uncovered, and your heels have suffered violence.

Therefore I also have drawn up your skirts over your face, that your shame may be seen.

surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your mounds and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your adultery shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry.

lest I strip her naked and set her out as in the day that she was born, and make her as the wilderness, and make her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

And now I will uncover her lewdness in the eyes of her lovers, and no man shall deliver her out of My hand.

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

The roads of Zion mourn because none go to the appointed meetings. All her gates are deserted; her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

All her people sigh; they seek bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore life. See, O Jehovah, and look upon me, for I have become vile.

They hear that I sigh; but no one comforts me. All my enemies have heard of my evil; they are glad that You have done it. You will bring the day that You have called, and they shall be like me.

Let all their wickedness come before You; and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and are silent; they throw dust on their heads; they gird on sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, the anguish as of one bearing her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, gasping and spreading her hands, saying, Woe to me now! For my soul is weary because of murderers.