Fire burned their group; the flames scorched the wicked. ¹ 

When they are scorched, ¹  they dry up, when it is hot, they vanish ²  from their place.

Ephraim has mixed itself like flour ¹  among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side. ² 

Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ¹  and the people became fuel for the fire. ²  People had no compassion on one another. ³ 

Their residents are powerless, ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field, or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

Their residents are powerless; ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

I said, ¹  “I will weep and mourn ²  for the grasslands on the mountains, ³  I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”

I said, ¹  “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ²  Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ³  Why does the land lie in ruins? Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

and say to the scrub land of the Negev, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, ¹  I am about to start a fire in you, ²  and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The flaming fire will not be extinguished, and the whole surface of the ground from the Negev to the north will be scorched by it.