1. “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!Get out of Jerusalem!Sound the trumpet in Tekoa!Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!For disaster lurks out of the north;it will bring great destruction.
2. I will destroy Daughter Zion,who is as delicate and defenseless as a young maiden.
3. Kings will come against it with their armies.They will encamp in siege all around it.Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him.
4. They will say, ‘Prepare to do battle against it!Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’But later they will say, ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! The day is almost overand the shadows of evening are getting long.
5. So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by nightand destroy all its fortified buildings.’
6. All of this is because the Lord who rules over all has said:‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalemand build up a siege ramp against its walls.This is the city which is to be punished.Nothing but oppression happens in it.