Yerushalayim will fall, lay siege n amid suffering
6:1 O you Benai BenYamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Yerushalayim, and blow the Shofar in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beit Ha Kerem: for ra'ah appeareth out of the tzafon (north), and shever gadol (great destruction).
6:2 I have likened the Bat Tziyon to a comely and delicate [woman].
6:3 The ro'im (shepherds) with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
6:4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
6:5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
6:6 For thus said ADONAI (יהוה) Tzavot:
Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Yerushalayim: this [is] the city to be visited; she [is] wholly oppression in the midst of her.
6:7 As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually [is] grief and wounds.
6:8 Be you instructed, O Yerushalayim, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.
6:9 Thus said ADONAI (יהוה) Tzva'ot:
They shall throughly glean the remnant of Yisrael as a vine: turn back your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.
6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? hinei, their ear [is] arelah (uncircumcised), and they cannot listen: hinei, Dvar ADONAI (יהוה) is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
6:11 Therefore I am full of the fury of ADONAI (יהוה); I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with [him that is] full of days.
6:12 And their batim (houses) shall be turned to others, [with their] fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, said ADONAI (יהוה).
6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one [is] given to covetousness; and from the Navi even to the kohen every one dealeth falsely.
6:14 They have healed also the hurt [of the daughter] of My people slightly, saying, shalom, shalom; when [there is] no shalom.
6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time [that] I visit them they shall be cast down, said ADONAI (יהוה).
6:16 Thus said ADONAI (יהוה):
Stand you in the darkhei (ways), and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good derek, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].
6:17 Also I set tzofim (watchmen) over you, [saying], listen to the sound of the Shofar. But they said, We will not listen.
6:18 Therefore hear, you goyim (nations), and know, O congregation, what [is] among them.
6:19 Hear, O earth: hinei, I will bring ra'ah upon this people, [even] the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My Divrei, nor to My Torah, but rejected it.
6:20 To what purpose comes there to me incense from Sheva (south west of Arabia), and the sweet cane from a far country? your Olah [are] not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.
6:21 Therefore thus said ADONAI (יהוה):
Hinei, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the banim together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
6:22 Thus said ADONAI (יהוה): hinei, a people comes from the tzafon (north) country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
6:23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they [are] cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against you, O Bat Tzyon (ציון).
6:24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pain, as of a woman in travail.
6:25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the derek; for the sword the enemy [and] fear [is] on every side.
6:26 O Bat Ami (My People), gird [thee] with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, [as for] an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
6:27 I have set you [for] a tower [and] a fortress among My people, that you mayest know and try their derek.
6:28 They [are] all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: [they are] brass and iron; they [are] all corrupters.
6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
6:30 Reprobate silver shall [men] call them, because ADONAI (יהוה) has rejected them.