You, by your power, ¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²  you crushed ³  the people living there ⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁵ 

when the anger of God flared up against them. He killed some of the strongest of them; he brought the young men of Israel to their knees.

He will pay them back for their sin. ¹  He will destroy them because of ²  their evil; the Lord our God will destroy them.

yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat. ¹ 

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest, ¹  so is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the heart ²  of his masters.

The pomegranates have appeared ¹  in the land, the time for pruning and singing ²  has come; the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord who commands armies. “I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ¹  including the offspring she produces,” ²  says the Lord.

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹ 

This is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “Go visit this administrator, Shebna, who supervises the palace, ¹  and tell him: ² 

“I thought, ¹  ‘In the middle of my life ²  I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived ³  of the rest of my years.’

For the sake of my reputation ¹  I hold back my anger; for the sake of my prestige ²  I restrain myself from destroying you. ³ 

For the religion ¹  of these people is worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest, and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ² 

Rich and poor alike will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned. People will not cut their bodies or shave off their hair to show their grief for them. ¹ 

Just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm. Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked.

Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, ¹  as the enemy comes marching up in force. They will come against her with axes as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.

The population of Egypt is like a vast, impenetrable forest. But I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that the enemy will cut them down. For those who chop them down will be more numerous than locusts. They will be too numerous to count. ² 

“Or suppose I were to bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through the land,’ and I were to kill both people and animals.

“Or suppose I were to send a plague into that land, and pour out my rage on it with bloodshed, killing both people and animals.

“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill ¹  every person and every animal.

I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; ¹  I will cut off ²  from it the one who passes through or returns.