1. “Run for your lives, you people of Benjamin!Get out of Jerusalem!Sound the alarm in Tekoa!Send up a signal at Beth-hakkerem!A powerful army is coming from the north,coming with disaster and destruction.
2. O Jerusalem, you are my beautiful and delicate daughter—but I will destroy you!
3. Enemies will surround you, like shepherds camped around the city.Each chooses a place for his troops to devour.
4. They shout, ‘Prepare for battle!Attack at noon!’‘No, it’s too late; the day is fading,and the evening shadows are falling.’
5. ‘Well then, let’s attack at nightand destroy her palaces!’”
6. This is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies says:“Cut down the trees for battering rams.Build siege ramps against the walls of Jerusalem.This is the city to be punished,for she is wicked through and through.