You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ¹ 

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?

Persist ¹  in trusting ²  your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited ³  since your youth! Maybe you will be successful ⁴  – maybe you will scare away disaster. ⁵ 

O Lord, you make us secure, ¹  for even all we have accomplished, you have done for us. ² 

O Lord, you are my God! ¹  I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. ²  For you have done extraordinary things, and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. ³ 

Whom are you worried about? Whom do you fear, that you would act so deceitfully and not remember me or think about me? ¹  Because I have been silent for so long, ²  you are not afraid of me. ³ 

You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’ so you will indeed flee. You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’ so your pursuers will be fast.

For this is what the master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: “If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered; ¹  if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength, ²  but you are unwilling.

You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ¹  you did not present to me ²  the fat of your sacrifices. Yet you burdened me with your sins; you made me weary with your evil deeds. ³ 

You will no longer see a defiant ¹  people whose language you do not comprehend, ²  whose derisive speech you do not understand. ³ 

Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ¹  Do you really think you will be rescued? ² 

All you wild animals in the fields, come and devour, all you wild animals in the forest!

Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond; you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’ You must ¹  remove the burdensome yoke from among you and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.

Then you will look and smile, ¹  you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ²  For the riches of distant lands ³  will belong to you and the wealth of nations will come to you.

Lament, ¹  you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon ²  who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

this is what the Lord says about him: ¹  “The virgin daughter Zion ²  despises you – she makes fun of you; daughter Jerusalem shakes her head after you. ³ 

Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of deliverance. ¹ 

For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹  me.

Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. ¹  In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me?

The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹  the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear ²  in the day of disease and incurable pain.