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.
7. She spouts evil like a fountain.Her streets echo with the sounds of violence and destruction.I always see her sickness and sores.
8. Listen to this warning, Jerusalem,or I will turn from you in disgust.Listen, or I will turn you into a heap of ruins,a land where no one lives.”