CHAPTER 4
1If you turn back, Israel, said the LORD,
to Me you shall turn back,
and if you remove your foul things
from before Me and do not waiver,
2I vow, as the LORD lives, in truth,
in justice, and in righteousness,
that nations shall bless themselves through you,
and through you shall they be praised.
3For thus said the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
Till for yourselves tilled ground,
and do not sow among thorns.
4Be circumcised to the LORD
and remove your hearts’ foreskins,
men of Judah and dwellers of Jerusalem,
lest My wrath come forth like fire
and burn with none to quench it
because of the evil of your acts.
5Tell it in Judah,
and in Jerusalem make it heard and say,
blow the ram’s horn in the land,
call out with full voice and say:
Assemble and let us come
to the fortified towns.
6Raise a banner toward Zion,
take refuge, do not stand,
for I am about to bring harm from the north
and a great disaster.
7A lion has sprung from its thicket,
and the ravager of nations has journeyed,
he has come forth from his place
to make your land desolate.
Your towns shall be ruined with no dweller.
8For this gird sackcloth,
keen and howl,
for the wrath of the LORD
has not turned back from him.
9And it shall happen on that day, said the LORD,
the heart of the king shall fail
and the heart of the nobles,
and desolate the priests shall be,
and the prophets shall be dumbfounded.
10And I said, “Alas, O Master, LORD!
Surely You have misled this people and Jerusalem,
saying, ‘You shall have peace,’
but the sword has touched the throat.”
11And at that time it shall be said
to this people and to Jerusalem:
a parching wind from the bare heights in the desert
going through My People’s Daughter—
neither to winnow nor to sift.
12A full wind from these comes against Me.
Now will I speak judgments against them.
13Look, he comes up like the clouds
and like the whirlwind his chariots.
His horses are swifter than eagles—
woe to us, for we are destroyed!
14Cleanse your heart of evil, Jerusalem,
so that you may be rescued.
How long will there lodge in your midst
your wicked devisings?
15For a voice proclaims from Dan
and announces disaster from Mount Ephraim.
16Make it known to the nations, look!
Announce it concerning Jerusalem.
Watchers are coming from a faraway land,
and they shall raise their voice against Judah’s towns.
17Like guards of the field they are against her all round,
for she has rebelled against Me.
18Your way and your deeds
have done these to you,
this evil of yours, which is bitter,
for it has touched your very heart.
19My gut, my gut—I writhe,
the walls of my heart,
my heart moans in me,
I am not still,
for the ram’s horn’s sound I have heard,
the blare of war.
20Disaster upon disaster is called forth,
for all the land is destroyed,
all at once my tents are destroyed,
in a moment, my tent curtains.
21How long shall I see the banner,
hear the ram’s horn’s sound?
22For My people are fools,
Me they did not know.
Ignorant children are they,
and they are not discerning,
they are wise to do evil,
but they know not how to do good.
23I saw the earth, and, look, welter and waste,
the heavens, and their light was gone.
24I saw the mountains and, look, they quaked,
and all the hills broke apart.
25I saw, and look, there was no human there,
and all the fowl of the heavens had gone away.
26I saw, and, look, the farmland was desert,
and all its towns were ruined
before the LORD and before His blazing wrath.
27For thus said the LORD:
A desolation shall all the earth be
but I will not wreak utter destruction.
28For this all the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above shall darken,
for I have spoken, I have laid plans,
and I did not repent nor turn back from it.
29From the sound of the horseman and archer
all the town flees.
They have entered the crannies,
gone up to the cliffs,
all the town is abandoned,
and no man dwells in it.
30As for you, the destroyed one, what have you done,
that you dress up in scarlet,
that you put on bangles of gold,
that you set off your eyes in kohl?
For naught you make yourself lovely.
your life they seek.
31For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor,
distress like one giving birth the first time,
the voice of Zion’s Daughter panting,
she stretches out her hands:
“Woe to me, for my being goes faint before the killers!”