It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest, and his hand gleans the ear of grain. It will be like one gathering the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

The noisy city is full of raucous sounds; the town is filled with revelry. ¹  Your slain were not cut down by the sword; they did not die in battle. ² 

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹ 

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 

Ariel is as good as dead ¹  – Ariel, the town David besieged! ²  Keep observing your annual rituals, celebrate your festivals on schedule. ³ 

In a year’s time ¹  you carefree ones will shake with fear, for the grape ²  harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

“I thought, ¹  ‘In the middle of my life ²  I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived ³  of the rest of my years.’

But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear ¹  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ² 

¹ The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel on their stone-hard ²  hearts. It is inscribed with a diamond ³  point on the horns of their altars. ⁴ 

I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ¹  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ² 

I will bring war, starvation, and disease ¹  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ² 

When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all, ²  “I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ³  I will deliver you from captivity. ⁴  Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

Just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm. Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked.

I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, ¹  the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf. ² 

So the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.’” ¹ 

But how can it rest ¹  when I, the Lord, have ²  given it orders? I have ordered it to attack the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast. ³ 

No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

ז (Zayin) Her consecrated ones ¹  were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies more ruddy than corals, their hair ²  like lapis lazuli. ³