CHAPTER 6
1Seek shelter, you Benjaminites, from within Jerusalem,
and in Tekoa sound the ram’s horn,
and on Beth Hakerem raise a signal fire,
for evil is in sight from the north
and a great disaster.
2Lovely and delicate
did I imagine Zion’s Daughter.
3Against her came shepherds with their flocks,
they pitched their tents all round,
4“Ready battle against her,
arise and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us, for the day declines,
for the shadows of evening stretch out!
5Arise and let us go up by night,
and let us lay waste to her citadels.”
6For thus said the LORD of Armies:
and build a siege-ramp against Jerusalem.
She is the city singled out,
naught but oppression is in her midst.
7As a well flows with water,
so she has flowed with her evil.
“Outrage” and “plunder” are heard within her
before Me perpetually sickness and plague.
8Accept reproof, O Jerusalem,
lest I loathe you,
lest I make you a desolation,
an uninhabitable land.
9Thus said the LORD of Armies:
They shall wholly glean as a vine
the remnant of Israel.
Bring back your hand like a picker of grapes
to the baskets.
10To whom should I speak,
and bear witness that they might heed?
Look, their ear is uncircumcised,
and they are unable to listen.
Look, the word of the LORD has become for them
a disgrace in which they do not delight.
11And with the wrath of the LORD I am filled,
Pour it on the babe in the street,
and on the gathering of young men together,
for both man and woman shall be caught,
the elder with the one full of years.
12And their homes shall be turned over to others,
fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out My hand
against the land’s dwellers, said the LORD.
13For from the least of them to their greatest
and from prophet to priest
all of them work lies.
14And they would heal My people’s wound easily saying,
“All is well, all is well,” but it is not well.
15They acted shamefully, for they performed abominations.
They were not even ashamed,
they did not even know how to be disgraced.
Therefore shall they fall among those who fall.
When I exact judgment from them, they shall stumble—
said the LORD.
16Thus said the LORD:
ask for the paths of old,
what is the good way, and go on it,
and find rest for yourselves.
And they said: “We will not go.”
17And I set up watchmen for you—
listen to the ram’s horn’s sound.
And they said: “We will not listen.”
18Therefore, hear O nations,
and note the testimony against them.
19Hear, O earth, I am about to bring evil against this people, the fruit of their devisings, for they did not listen to all My words, and My teaching they have spurned. 20Why do I need frankincense that comes from Sheba and the goodly fragrant cane from a faraway land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices do not please Me.
21Therefore, thus said the LORD:
I am about to bring upon this people
stumbling blocks, and they shall stumble on them.
Fathers and sons together,
a neighbor and his fellow shall perish.
22A people is about to come from a land of the north,
and a great nation is roused from the far corners of the earth.
23Bow and javelin they grasp,
they are ruthless and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea
arrayed as one man for battle
against you, O Zion’s Daughter!
24We heard the report of him—our hands went slack.
Distress seized us, pangs like a woman in labor.
25Do not go out to the field,
and on the road do not walk,
is terror all round.
26My People’s Daughter, gird sackcloth
and wallow in the dust.
Observe mourning as for an only child,
a bitter keening.
For the destroyer shall come
all of a sudden against us.
27An assayer I made you in My people [a fortress],
that you should know and assay their way.
28They all are wayward rebels,
they all act ruinously.
29The bellows puff, from the fire lead is consumed.
the impure matter is not drawn out.
30Rejected silver they have been called,
for the LORD has rejected them.