¶“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.Strengthen sons of Benjamin, out of Jerousalem, and in Thekoa signify by the trumpet and over Baithakarma lift up a sign because the evil one has peeped outᵃ from the North and a great tribulationᴮ is happening.

Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his place.”out of his own hand

¶“Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.”

For Yahweh of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.

Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.”

¶Thus says Yahweh of Armies, “They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.”

¶To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with holding in.

“Pour it out on the children in the street,

and on the assembly of young men together;

for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,

the aged with him who is full of days.

¶Thus says Yahweh, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them.

Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.”

¶Therefore thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

Thus says Yahweh, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.