For whenever I prophesy, ¹  I must cry out, ²  “Violence and destruction are coming!” ³  This message from the Lord ⁴  has made me an object of continual insults and derision.

A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work! A curse on anyone who keeps from carrying out his destruction! ¹ 

Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, ¹  you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”

How awful that day will be! ¹  For the day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer. ² 

Why do you force me to witness injustice? ¹  Why do you put up with wrongdoing? ²  Destruction and violence confront ³  me; conflict is present and one must endure strife. ⁴ 

So when God destroyed ¹  the cities of the region, ²  God honored ³  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁴  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁵  the cities Lot had lived in.

The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord like Ahab’s dynasty because, after his father’s death, they ²  gave him advice that led to his destruction.

For ¹  they do not speak the truth; ²  their stomachs are like the place of destruction, ³  their throats like an open grave, ⁴  their tongues like a steep slope leading into it. ⁵ 

For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ¹  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ²  Destruction has been decreed; ³  just punishment ⁴  is about to engulf you. ⁵ 

So now, do not mock, or your chains will become heavier! For I have heard a message about decreed destruction, from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ¹ 

His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river ¹  that reaches one’s neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; ²  he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. ³ 

Owls and wild animals ¹  will live there, ²  all kinds of wild birds ³  will settle in it. The Lord ⁴  will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line ⁵  of destruction. ⁶ 

the one who led chariots and horses to destruction, ¹  together with a mighty army. They fell down, ²  never to rise again; they were extinguished, put out like a burning wick:

Disaster will overtake you; you will not know how to charm it away. ¹  Destruction will fall on you; you will not be able to appease it. Calamity will strike you suddenly, before you recognize it. ² 

Sounds of violence ¹  will no longer be heard in your land, or the sounds of ²  destruction and devastation within your borders. You will name your walls, ‘Deliverance,’ and your gates, ‘Praise.’

Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. ¹  Run for safety! Do not delay! For I am about to bring disaster out of the north. It will bring great destruction. ² 

I see ¹  one destruction after another taking place, so that the whole land lies in ruins. I see our ²  tents suddenly destroyed, their ³  curtains torn down in a mere instant. ⁴ 

“Run for safety, people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! ¹  Sound the trumpet ²  in Tekoa! Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster lurks ³  out of the north; it will bring great destruction. ⁴ 

As a well continually pours out fresh water so it continually pours out wicked deeds. ¹  Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it. ²  All I see are sick and wounded people.’ ³