For the Lord has poured out on you a strong urge to sleep deeply. ¹  He has shut your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

Tremble, you complacent ones! Shake with fear, you carefree ones! Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves – put sackcloth on your waist! ¹ 

This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ¹  Then the desert will become an orchard and the orchard will be considered a forest. ² 

I am not angry. I wish I could confront some thorns and briers! Then I would march against them ¹  for battle; I would set them ²  all on fire,

“I thought, ‘I will no longer see the Lord ¹  in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world. ² 

Ariel is as good as dead ¹  – Ariel, the town David besieged! ²  Keep observing your annual rituals, celebrate your festivals on schedule. ³ 

The grass dries up, the flowers wither, when the wind sent by the Lord ¹  blows on them. Surely humanity ²  is like grass.

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹ 

They will swoop down ¹  on the Philistine hills to the west; ²  together they will loot the people of the east. They will take over Edom and Moab, ³  and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ¹  At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine – tender meat and choicest wine. ² 

So he poured out his fierce anger on them, along with the devastation ¹  of war. Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ²  it burned against them, but they did notice. ³ 

Foreigners will rebuild your walls; their kings will serve you. Even though I struck you down in my anger, I will restore my favor and have compassion on you. ¹ 

Look all around you! ¹  All of them gather to you. As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry; you will put them on as if you were a bride.

They will no longer trust in ¹  the altars their hands made, or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. ² 

For, look, darkness covers the earth and deep darkness covers ¹  the nations, but the Lord shines on you; his splendor ²  appears over you.

Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead, ¹  those who rely on war horses, and trust in Egypt’s many chariots ²  and in their many, many horsemen. ³  But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel ⁴  and do not seek help from the Lord.

What will you do on judgment day, ¹  when destruction arrives from a distant place? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ¹  to punish the sin of those who live on the earth. The earth will display the blood shed on it; it will no longer cover up its slain. ² 

I will break Assyria ¹  in my land, I will trample them ²  underfoot on my hills. Their yoke will be removed from my people, the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ³ 

For this reason this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “You have rejected this message; ¹  you trust instead in your ability to oppress and trick, ²  and rely on that kind of behavior. ³