Cut sharply on the right! Swing to ¹  the left, wherever your edge ²  is appointed to strike.

You must not slash your body for a dead person ¹  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ²  I am the Lord.

For all of them will shave their heads in mourning. They will all cut off their beards to show their sorrow. They will all make gashes in their hands. They will all put on sackcloth. ¹ 

That army will pelt them with stones and slash them with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses. ¹ 

A sword will flash in their cities, it will destroy the bars of their city gates, and will devour them in their fortresses.

(4:14) ¹  But now slash yourself, ²  daughter surrounded by soldiers! ³  We are besieged! With a scepter ⁴  they strike Israel’s ruler ⁵  on the side of his face.

Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.

O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, ¹  for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.

They do not pray to me, ¹  but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves ²  for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.

Wail, you people in Heshbon, because Ai in Ammon is destroyed. Cry out in anguish, you people in the villages surrounding ¹  Rabbah. Put on sackcloth and cry out in mourning. Run about covered with gashes. ²  For your god Milcom will go into exile along with his priests and officials. ³