We all growl like bears, we coo mournfully like doves; we wait for deliverance, ¹  but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! ¹  But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; ²  you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. ³ 

Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. ¹  The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again.

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ¹  Cries of distress come up to me ²  from Jerusalem. ³ 

So their land will become an object of horror. ¹  People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision. ² 

They will answer, ‘Moab is disgraced, for it has fallen! Wail and cry out in mourning! Announce along the Arnon River that Moab has been destroyed.’

“Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by it will be filled with horror; they will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ¹ 

“People of Babylonia, ¹  you plundered my people. ²  That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. ³  Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. ⁴ 

Those both near and far from you will mock you, you with your bad reputation, ¹  full of turmoil.

The traders among the peoples hiss at you; you have become a horror, and will be no more.’”

Listen to the cattle groan! ¹  The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ²  because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

“Now his older son was in the field. As ¹  he came and approached the house, he heard music ²  and dancing.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.

I said, ¹  “I will weep and mourn ²  for the grasslands on the mountains, ³  I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”

For I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, tell you what will happen. ¹  I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in this land. You and the rest of the people will live to see this happen.’” ² 

There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, ¹  anyone who practices divination, ²  an omen reader, ³  a soothsayer, ⁴  a sorcerer, ⁵ 

This temple will become a heap of ruins; ¹  everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, ²  saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

¹ They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. ²  Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” ³ 

¹ There is a loud noise on the mountains – it sounds like a large army! ²  There is great commotion among the kingdoms ³  – nations are being assembled! The Lord who commands armies is mustering forces for battle.