20. What use to me is incense from Shebaor sweet cane from a faraway land?Your entirely burned offerings won’t buy your pardon;your sacrifices won’t appease me.
21. Therefore, the Lord proclaims:I’m putting obstacles before this people,and both parents and children will stumble over them;neighbor and friend alike will perish.
22. The Lord proclaims:An army is on the movefrom the northern regions;a great nation is rousedfrom the ends of the earth.
23. Equipped with bow and spear,they are cruel;they show no mercy.Their horsemen soundlike the roaring sea,arrayed in battle formationagainst you, Daughter Zion.
24. We have heard reports of themand are panic-stricken;distress overwhelms us,pain like that of a woman in labor.
25. Don’t go out into the field!Don’t walk on the road!The enemies’ swordterrorizes at every turn.
26. My people,put on funeral clothes and roll in ashes;weep and wail as for an only child,because the destroyer will suddenly descend upon us.
27. I have made you a tester of metals,to examine my peopleto know and prove their ways.
28. They are tin and iron;they are headstrong and rebellious.They live to slander.They act corruptly—every last one!
29. The bellows roar;the lead is consumed.Yet the refining fails;the impurities remain.
30. They are called "rejected silver,"for the Lord has rejected them.