CHAPTER 4
1 Israel, if thou turnest again, saith the Lord, turn thou to me; if thou takest away thine offendings from my face, thou shalt not be moved.
2 And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, and in doom, and in rightfulness [or rightwiseness]; and all folks shall bless him, and shall praise him.
3 For the Lord God saith these things to a man of Judah, and to a dweller of Jerusalem, Make ye new to you a land tilled of new, either a fallow, and do not ye sow on thorns.
4 Men of Judah, and dwellers of Jerusalem, be ye circumcised to the Lord, and do ye away the prepuces, either filths, of your hearts; lest peradventure mine indignation go out as fire, and be kindled, and none there be that quench, for the malice of your thoughts.
5 Tell ye in Judah, and make ye heard in Jerusalem; speak ye, and sing ye with a trump in the land; cry ye strongly, and say ye, Be ye gathered together, and enter we into [the] strong cities.
6 Raise ye a sign in Zion, comfort ye, and do not ye stand; for I [shall] bring evil from the north, and a great sorrow.
7 A lion shall go up from his den, and the robber of folks shall raise himself. He is gone out of his place, to set thy land into wilderness; thy cities shall be destroyed, abiding still without dweller.
8 On this thing gird you with hair-shirts; wail ye, and yell, for the wrath of the strong vengeance of the Lord is not turned away from you.
9 And it shall be, in that day, saith the Lord, the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of princes; and the priests shall wonder, and the prophets shall be astonied.
10 And I said, Alas! alas! alas! Lord God; therefore whether thou hast deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Peace shall be to you, and lo! a sword is come unto the soul?
11 In that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A burning wind in the ways that be in desert, be the ways of the daughter of my people, not to winnow, and not to purge.
12 A spirit full of them shall come to me; and now I, but I shall speak my dooms with them.
13 Lo! he shall ascend [or go up] as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest; his horses be swifter than eagles; woe to us, for we be destroyed.
14 Thou Jerusalem, wash thine heart from malice, that thou be made safe. How long shall harmful thoughts dwell in thee?
15 For why the voice of a teller from Dan, and making known an idol from the hill or mount of Ephraim.
16 Raise, ye folks; lo! it is heard in Jerusalem, that keepers be come from a far land, and give their voice on the cities of Judah.
17 As the keepers of fields, they be made on it in compass; for it stirred me to wrathfulness [or to wrath], saith the Lord.
18 Thy ways and thy thoughts have made this to thee; this malice of thee, for it is bitter, for it touched thine heart.
19 My womb acheth, my womb acheth; the wits of mine heart be troubled in me. I shall not be still, for my soul heard the voice of a trump, the cry of battle.
20 Sorrow is called on sorrow, and all the land is destroyed; my taber-nacles be wasted suddenly, my skins be wasted suddenly.
21 How long shall I see them that flee, shall I hear the voice of a clarion?
22 For my fond [or foolish] people knew not me; they be unwise sons, and cowards; they be wise to do evils, but they know not to do well.
23 I beheld the land, and lo! it was void, and nought; and I beheld heavens, and no light there was in them.
24 I saw mountains, and lo! they were moved, and all little hills were troubled.
25 I looked, and no man there was, and each bird of heaven was gone away.
26 I beheld, and lo! Carmel is forsaken, and all cities thereof be destroyed from the face of the Lord, and from the face of the ire [or the wrath] of his strong vengeance.
27 For the Lord saith these things, All the land shall be forsaken, but nevertheless, I shall not make a [full] ending.
28 The earth shall mourn, and heavens above shall make sorrow, for that I spake; I thought, and it repented not me, neither I am turned away from it.
29 Each city fled from the voice of a knight, and a man shooting an arrow; they entered into hard places, and ascended [or went up] into rocks of stone; all [the] cities be forsaken, and no man dwelleth in them.
30 But what shalt thou destroyed, do? When thou shalt clothe thee with red scarlet, when thou shalt be adorned with a golden brooch, and shalt anoint thine eyes with woman’s ointment, thou shalt be arrayed in vain; thy lovers have despised thee, they shall seek thy soul.
31 For I heard a voice as a woman travailing of child, the anguishes as of a woman childing; the voice of the daughter of Zion among them that die, and spread abroad her hands; Woe to me, for my soul failed for them that be slain.