Kings will come against it with their armies. ¹  They will encamp in siege all around it. ²  Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ³ 

I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ¹  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ² 

The nations will hear of your devastating defeat. ¹  your cries of distress will echo throughout the earth. In the panic of their flight one soldier will trip over another and both of them will fall down defeated.” ² 

Indeed they will climb the slopes of Luhith, weeping continually as they go. ¹  For on the road down to Horonaim they will hear the cries of distress over the destruction. ² 

The destroyer will come against every town. Not one town will escape. The towns in the valley will be destroyed. The cities on the high plain will be laid waste. ¹  I, the Lord, have spoken! ² 

Kill all her soldiers! ¹  Let them be slaughtered! ²  They are doomed, ³  for their day of reckoning ⁴  has come, the time for them to be punished.”

“Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.

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 

“So now, our God, accept ¹  the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to ²  your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. ³ 

They have committed treason ¹  against the Lord, because they bore illegitimate children. Soon ²  the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.

I cannot carry out ¹  my fierce anger! I cannot totally destroy Ephraim! Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you – I will not come in wrath!

I will make up for the years ¹  that the ‘arbeh-locust ²  consumed your crops ³  – the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust – my great army ⁴  that I sent against you.

Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.

It will happen in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds of the people ¹  in it will be cut off and die, but one-third will be left in it. ² 

This is the kind of plague that will devastate horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in those camps.

Then ¹  there were flashes of lightning, roaring, ²  and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake – an earthquake unequaled since humanity ³  has been on the earth, so tremendous was that earthquake.

or what he did to the army of Egypt, including their horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea ¹  overwhelm them while they were pursuing you and he ²  annihilated them. ³ 

When Israel had finished killing all the men ¹  of Ai who had chased them toward the desert ²  (they all fell by the sword), ³  all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it.

He defeated them from Aroer all the way to Minnith – twenty cities in all, even as far as Abel Keramim! He wiped them out! ¹  The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites. ² 

You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ¹  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ²