17. As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says the Lord.
18. “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”
19. My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the shofar, the alarm of war.
20. Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.
21. How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the shofar?
22. “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skilful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
23. I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24. I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.
25. I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.
26. I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, before his fierce anger.
27. For the Lord says, “The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
28. For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”
29. Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.