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The Imminence and Horror of the Invasion

6Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,
   from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
   and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem;
for evil looms out of the north,
   and great destruction.
² I have likened daughter Zion
   to the loveliest pasture.^*
3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her.
   They shall pitch their tents around her;
   they shall pasture, all in their places.
⁴ ‘Prepare war against her;
   up, and let us attack at noon!’
‘Woe to us, for the day declines,
   the shadows of evening lengthen!’
⁵ ‘Up, and let us attack by night,
   and destroy her palaces!’
⁶ For thus says the Lord of hosts:
Cut down her trees;
   cast up a siege-ramp against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;^*
   there is nothing but oppression within her.
⁷ As a well keeps its water fresh,
   so she keeps fresh her wickedness;
violence and destruction are heard within her;
   sickness and wounds are ever before me.
⁸ Take warning, O Jerusalem,
   or I shall turn from you in disgust,
and make you a desolation,
   an uninhabited land.

⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Glean^* thoroughly as a vine
   the remnant of Israel;
like a grape-gatherer, pass your hand again
   over its branches.

¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and give warning,
   that they may hear?
See, their ears are closed,^*
   they cannot listen.
The word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
   they take no pleasure in it.
¹¹ But I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
   I am weary of holding it in.

Pour it out on the children in the street,
   and on the gatherings of young men as well;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
   the old folk and the very aged.
¹² Their houses shall be turned over to others,
   their fields and wives together;
for I will stretch out my hand
   against the inhabitants of the land,

says the Lord.

¹³ For from the least to the greatest of them,
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
   everyone deals falsely.
¹⁴ They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
   when there is no peace.
¹⁵ They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
   yet they were not ashamed,
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.