3. All your leaders have fled.They surrendered without resistance.The people tried to slip away,but they were captured, too.
4. That’s why I said, “Leave me alone to weep;do not try to comfort me.Let me cry for my peopleas I watch them being destroyed.”
5. Oh, what a day of crushing defeat!What a day of confusion and terrorbrought by the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies,upon the Valley of Vision!The walls of Jerusalem have been broken,and cries of death echo from the mountainsides.
6. Elamites are the archers,with their chariots and charioteers.The men of Kir hold up the shields.
7. Chariots fill your beautiful valleys,and charioteers storm your gates.
8. Judah’s defenses have been stripped away.You run to the armory for your weapons.
9. You inspect the breaks in the walls of Jerusalem.You store up water in the lower pool.
10. You survey the houses and tear some downfor stone to strengthen the walls.
11. Between the city walls, you build a reservoirfor water from the old pool.But you never ask for help from the One who did all this.You never considered the One who planned this long ago.
12. At that time the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies,called you to weep and mourn.He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sinsand to wear clothes of burlap to show your remorse.
13. But instead, you dance and play;you slaughter cattle and kill sheep.You feast on meat and drink wine.You say, “Let’s feast and drink,for tomorrow we die!”
14. The lord of Heaven’s Armies has revealed this to me: “Till the day you die, you will never be forgiven for this sin.” That is the judgment of the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies.
15. This is what the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies, said to me: “Confront Shebna, the palace administrator, and give him this message: