If you have done foolishly by exalting yourself ¹  or if you have planned evil, put ²  your hand over your mouth!

Indeed, a large vineyard ¹  will produce just a few gallons, ²  and enough seed to yield several bushels ³  will produce less than a bushel.” ⁴ 

for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ¹  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ² 

They devoured ¹  on the right, but were still hungry, they ate on the left, but were not satisfied. People even ate ²  the flesh of their own arm! ³ 

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 

The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. ¹  That is because ²  you came in judgment ³  and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them.

Who is the Lord ¹  trying to teach? To whom is he explaining a message? ²  Those just weaned from milk! Those just taken from their mother’s breast! ³ 

all will be put to shame ¹  because of a nation that cannot help them, who cannot give them aid or help, but only shame and disgrace.”

Turn aside from the way, stray off the path. ¹  Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ² 

He will water the seed you plant in the ground, and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ¹  At that time ²  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Yes, your land lies in ruins; it is desolate and devastated. ¹  But now you will be too small to hold your residents, and those who devoured you will be far away.

Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, ‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹  make room for us so we can live here.’ ² 

All their watchmen ¹  are blind, they are unaware. ²  All of them are like mute dogs, unable to bark. They pant, ³  lie down, and love to snooze.

In light of all this, ¹  how can you still hold back, Lord? How can you be silent and continue to humiliate us?

However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all. ² 

The Lord cried out, ¹  “Who in the world ²  will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will grieve over you? Who will stop long enough ³  to inquire about how you are doing? ⁴ 

‘You have said, “I feel so hopeless! ¹  For the Lord has added sorrow to my suffering. ²  I am worn out from groaning. I can’t find any rest.”’”

How long will you cry out, ¹  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord, how long will it be before you stop killing? ²  Go back into your sheath! Stay there and rest!’ ³ 

Its boughs were strong, fit ¹  for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds. It stood out because of its height and its many branches. ²