They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them.

Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it, or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it, or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

All your leaders ran away together – they fled to a distant place; all your refugees were captured together – they were captured without a single arrow being shot.

Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. The sovereign Lord will kill you, but he will give his servants another name.

captains of groups of fifty, the respected citizens, advisers and those skilled in magical arts, and those who know incantations.

It furiously struck down nations with unceasing blows. It angrily ruled over nations, oppressing them without restraint.

Egypt is totally incapable of helping. For this reason I call her ‘Proud one who is silenced.’”

Look, all of them are nothing, their accomplishments are nonexistent; their metal images lack any real substance.

Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, the master as well as the servant, the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, the seller as well as the buyer, the borrower as well as the lender, the creditor as well as the debtor.

No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves: ‘I burned half of it in the fire – yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’

No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, for my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced.

How tragic that the once-faithful city has become a prostitute! She was once a center of justice, fairness resided in her, but now only murderers.

I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days. Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”

The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve.

Is this really your boisterous city whose origins are in the distant past, and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

those who bear false testimony against a person, who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges.

all will be put to shame because of a nation that cannot help them, who cannot give them aid or help, but only shame and disgrace.”

A deceiver’s methods are evil; he dreams up evil plans to ruin the poor with lies, even when the needy are in the right.

This is what the Lord says, “Promote justice! Do what is right! For I am ready to deliver you; I am ready to vindicate you openly.