<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> I will surely send you away for your own good.p> <p class="poetry">I will surely<n id="2" /> bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.p>

<p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Fair Babylon<n id="1" /> will be like a threshing floorp> <p class="poetry">which has been trampled flat for harvest.p> <p class="poetry">The time for her to be cut down and harvestedp> <p class="poetry">will come very soon.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it.p> <p class="poetry">We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.p>

<p class="poetry">They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed.p> <p class="poetry">When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.p>

<p class="poetry">You have brought all this on yourself, Israel,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">by deserting the <sc>Lordsc> your God when he was leading you along the right path.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">You have been the object of Israel&#8217;s hopes.p> <p class="poetry">You have saved them when they were in trouble.p> <p class="poetry">Why have you become like a resident foreigner<n id="1" /> in the land?p> <p class="poetry">Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?p>

In those days and at that time I will raise up for them a righteous descendant<n id="1" /> of David.p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;He will do what is just and right in the land.

<p class="poetry">Kill all her soldiers!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Let them be slaughtered!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They are doomed,<n id="3" /> for their day of reckoning<n id="4" /> has come,p> <p class="poetry">the time for them to be punished.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">says the Lord <sc>Godsc> who rules over all.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Indeed,<n id="3" /> your day of reckoning<n id="4" /> has come,p> <p class="poetry">the time when I will punish you.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">They say to a wooden idol,<n id="1" /> &#8216;You are my father.&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">They say to a stone image, &#8216;You gave birth to me.&#8217;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Yet when they are in trouble, they say, &#8216;Come and save us!&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">But where are the gods you made for yourselves?p> <p class="poetry">Let them save you when you are in trouble.p> <p class="poetry">The sad fact is that<n id="1" /> you have as many godsp> <p class="poetry">as you have towns, Judah.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem<n id="1" /> will be told,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;A scorching wind will sweep downp> <p class="poetry">from the hilltops in the desert on<n id="2" /> my dear people.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">It will not be a gentle breezep> <p class="poetry">for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">They do not say to themselves,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Let us revere the <sc>Lordsc> our God.p> <p class="poetry">It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time.p> <p class="poetry">It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Even the stork knowsp> <p class="poetry">when it is time to move on.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The turtledove, swallow, and crane<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">recognize<n id="3" /> the normal times for their migration.p> <p class="poetry">But my people pay no attentionp> <p class="poetry">to<n id="4" /> what I, the <sc>Lordsc>, require of them.<n id="5" />p>

Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will<n id="1" /> go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means<n id="2" /> be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

<p class="poetry">May that man be like the cities<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that the <sc>Lordsc> destroyed without showing any mercy.p> <p class="poetry">May he hear a cry of distress in the morningp> <p class="poetry">and a battle cry at noon.p>

<p class="poetry">Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">There has never been any like it.p> <p class="poetry">It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">but some of them will be rescued out of it.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and they will be my people.p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

&#8220;I, <sc>Lordsc>, make the following promise:<n id="1" /> &#8216;I have made a covenant with the day<n id="2" /> and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people<n id="3" /> could break that covenant