Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’

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.

Yet, ¹  Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor. ² 

No, ¹  a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding. Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.’ ² 

Now the coastlands will tremble on the day of your fall; the coastlands by the sea will be terrified by your passing.’ ¹ 

Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

He spoke with me, instructing me as follows: ¹  “Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you.

Soon ¹  I will expose her lewd nakedness ²  in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me! ³ 

Israel has rebelled ¹  like a stubborn heifer! Soon ²  the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field! 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.

They do not realize ¹  that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me. ² 

Israel will be swallowed up among the nations; they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.

Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, ¹  I will soon gather them together for judgment. ²  Then ³  they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king. ⁴ 

Their heart is slipping; soon they will be punished for their guilt. The Lord ¹  will break their altars; he will completely destroy their fertility pillars.

“Yet even now,” the Lord says, “return to me with all your heart – with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, ¹  not just your garments!”

So now, Lord, kill me instead, ¹  because I would rather die than live!” ² 

Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, ¹  so we can gloat over Zion!” ² 

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹  The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²  and then you will experience confusion. ³ 

Here then is what the Lord who rules over all says: ‘Think carefully about what you are doing. ¹ 

But I will be different now to this remnant of my people from the way I was in those days,’ says the Lord who rules over all,