They devoured ¹  on the right, but were still hungry, they ate on the left, but were not satisfied. People even ate ²  the flesh of their own arm! ³ 

The land of Judah will humiliate Egypt. Everyone who hears about Judah will be afraid because of what the Lord who commands armies is planning to do to them. ¹ 

Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says: “Look, I am laying ¹  a stone in Zion, an approved ²  stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ³  The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ⁴ 

They will surrender their stronghold ¹  because of fear; ²  their officers will be afraid of the Lord’s battle flag.” ³  This is what the Lord says – the one whose fire is in Zion, whose firepot is in Jerusalem. ⁴ 

My servant is truly blind, my messenger is truly deaf. My covenant partner, ¹  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ² 

Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: ¹  “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘Look, your deliverer comes! Look, his reward is with him and his reward goes before him!’” ² 

My heart palpitates, ¹  I shake in fear; ²  the twilight I desired has brought me terror.

I will remove you from ¹  your office; you will be thrown down ²  from your position.

Indeed, they will hear meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹ 

Your plunder ¹  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ²  they swarm over it like locusts! ³ 

Then blind eyes will open, deaf ears will hear.

“Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ¹  says the Lord. “I am stuffed with ²  burnt sacrifices of rams and the fat from steers. The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats I do not want. ³ 

One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹  one who is like a mere ²  shard among the other shards on the ground! The clay should not say to the potter, ³  “What in the world ⁴  are you doing? Your work lacks skill!” ⁵ 

They put it on their shoulder and carry it; they put it in its place and it just stands there; it does not ¹  move from its place. Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply; it does not deliver him from his distress.

They will pass through the land ¹  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ²  and they will curse their king and their God ³  as they look upward.

So ¹  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ² 

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

The full moon will be covered up, ¹  the bright sun ²  will be darkened; ³  for the Lord who commands armies will rule ⁴  on Mount Zion in Jerusalem ⁵  in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor. ⁶ 

This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, ² 

My hand made them; ¹  that is how they came to be,” ²  says the Lord. I show special favor ³  to the humble and contrite, who respect what I have to say. ⁴