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Chapter 4
1 If you will return, O Israel, said the Lord, return to me: if you will take away your stumblingblocks out of my sight, you shall not be moved.
2 And you shall swear: As the Lord lives, in truth, and in judgement, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him.
3 For thus said the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:
4 Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it: because of the wickedness of your thoughts.
5 Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.
6 Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
7 The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations has roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make your land desolate: your cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.
8 For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed
10 And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, have you then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reaches even to the soul?
11 At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.
12 A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.
13 Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.
14 Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in you?
15 For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from mount Ephraim.
16 Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.
17 They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she has provoked me to wrath, said the Lord.
18 They ways, and your devices have brought these things upon you: this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it has touched your heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels are in pain, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.
20 Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.
21 How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.
24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.
25 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.
26 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.
27 For thus said the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.
28 The earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.
29 At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away; they have entered into thickets and have climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwells not a man in them.
30 But when you are spoiled what will you do? though you deck you with ornaments of gold, and paint your eyes with stibic stone, you shall dress yourself out in vain: your lovers have despised you, they will seek your life.
31 For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as of a woman in labor of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul has fainted because of them that are slain.