For her blood was in it; she poured it on an exposed rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

By the multitude of your iniquities, through the sinfulness of your trade, you desecrated your sanctuaries. So I drew fire out from within you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth before the eyes of all who saw you.

I will dry up the waterways and hand the land over to ¹  evil men. I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken!

I will leave you on the ground, I will fling you on the open field, I will allow ¹  all the birds of the sky to settle ²  on you, and I will permit ³  all the wild animals ⁴  to gorge themselves on you.

I will turn the land into a desolate ruin; her confident pride will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate no one will pass through them.

Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’ ¹ 

My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over the entire face of the earth with no one looking or searching for them.

I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land.

“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ¹  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ² 

They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid.

They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”

You will advance; ¹  you will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the earth, you, all your troops, and the many other peoples with you.

They will designate men to scout continually ¹  through the land, burying those who remain on the surface of the ground, ²  in order to cleanse it. They will search for seven full months.

You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ¹ 

This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Here ¹  are the borders ²  you will observe as you allot the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. (Joseph will have two portions.) ³ 

You must divide it equally just as I vowed to give it to your forefathers; ¹  this land will be assigned as your inheritance. ² 

We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ¹  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ²  and to all the inhabitants ³  of the land as well.

Then the people ¹  of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves one leader, ²  and will flourish in the land. ³  Certainly, ⁴  the day of Jezreel will be great!

“At that time, ¹  I will willingly respond,” ²  declares the Lord. “I will respond to the sky, and the sky ³  will respond to the ground;