<t /><p class="poetry">Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land,p> <p class="poetry">you people of Jerusalem<n id="1" /> who are being besieged.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">You may feel as secure as a birdp> <p class="poetry">nesting in the cedars of Lebanon.p> <p class="poetry">But oh how you<n id="1" /> will groan<n id="2" /> when the pains of judgment come on you.p> <p class="poetry">They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Look up at the hilltops and consider this.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">You have had sex with other gods on every one of them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Listen, you<n id="1" /> who sit enthroned above the valley on a rocky plateau.p> <p class="poetry">I am opposed to you,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;You boast, &#8220;No one can swoop down on us.p> <p class="poetry">No one can penetrate into our places of refuge.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Come down from your place of honor;p> <p class="poetry">sit on the dry ground,<n id="1" /> you who live in Dibon.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you;p> <p class="poetry">he will destroy your fortifications.p>

<p class="poetry">The person who lives in Zion says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">Jerusalem says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>