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.

Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make ¹  a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage ²  could cross over?

Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, ¹  happiness and joy will overwhelm ²  them; grief and suffering will disappear. ³ 

I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ¹  who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’ You made your back like the ground, and like the street for those who walked over you.”

And now, what do we have here?” ¹  says the Lord. “Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing, those who rule over them taunt,” ²  says the Lord, “and my name is constantly slandered ³  all day long.

¹ The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

We grope along the wall like the blind, we grope like those who cannot see; ¹  we stumble at noontime as if it were evening. Though others are strong, we are like dead men. ² 

You assist ¹  those who delight in doing what is right, ²  who observe your commandments. ³  Look, you were angry because we violated them continually. How then can we be saved? ⁴ 

“They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, ¹  and the fire that consumes them will not die out. ²  All people will find the sight abhorrent.” ³ 

Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out and your throats become dry. ¹  But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me because I love those foreign gods ²  and want to pursue them!’

“If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord, “if you want to come back to me ¹  you must get those disgusting idols ²  out of my sight and must no longer go astray. ³ 

They are saying, ¹  ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ²  “The enemy is coming!” ³  Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

Their houses will be turned over to others as will their fields and their wives. For I will unleash my power ¹  against those who live in this land,” says the Lord.

Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ¹  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ² 

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, ¹  those who teach it ²  have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean. ³ 

(8:23) ¹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²  and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people ³  who have been killed.

The Lord who rules over all ¹  told me to say to this people, ²  “Take note of what I say. ³  Call for the women who mourn for the dead! Summon those who are the most skilled at it!” ⁴ 

All these idolaters ¹  will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. ²  There is no breath in any of those idols. ³ 

For the Lord says, “I will now throw out those who live in this land. I will bring so much trouble on them that they will actually feel it.” ¹ 

What will you say ¹  when the Lord ²  appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? ³  Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ⁴