For the waters of Nimrim are gone; the grass is dried up, the vegetation has disappeared, and there are no plants.

Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the hill of Daughter Zion.

My heart palpitates, I shake in fear; the twilight I desired has brought me terror.

Arrange the table, lay out the carpet, eat and drink! Get up, you officers, smear oil on the shields!

I will threaten Ariel, and she will mourn intensely and become like an altar hearth before me.

I will lay siege to you on all sides; I will besiege you with troops; I will raise siege works against you.

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

Look, I have inscribed your name on my palms; your walls are constantly before me.

Justice is driven back; godliness stands far off. Indeed, honesty stumbles in the city square and morality is not even able to enter.

For the Lord says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

“Who is this that rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage?

Poor dear Egypt will be put to shame. She will be handed over to the people from the north.”

“You who live along the rivers of Babylon, the time of your end has come. You who are rich in plundered treasure, it is time for your lives to be cut off.

We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.

You must speak my words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

Yet I had pity on them and did not destroy them, so I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.

I will do these things to you because you engaged in prostitution with the nations, polluting yourself with their idols.

Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will commit immoral acts with her.’

They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die violently in the heart of the seas.