As you stand in those places ¹  announce, ‘Listen, all you people who pass through these gates. Listen, all you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah and all you citizens of Jerusalem. Listen to what the Lord says. ² 

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

I am determined to do so because the people of Israel and Judah have made me angry with all their wickedness – they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, and especially the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹  have done this wickedness. ² 

Turn and flee! Take up refuge in remote places, ¹  you people who live in Dedan. ²  For I will bring disaster on the descendants of Esau. I have decided it is time for me to punish them. ³ 

“But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

ל (Lamed) Neither the kings of the earth nor the people of the lands ¹  ever thought ²  that enemy or foe would enter the gates ³  of Jerusalem. ⁴ 

“Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire – so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem ¹  as fuel. ² 

The leaders ¹  of Sidon ²  and Arvad ³  were your rowers; your skilled ⁴  men, O Tyre, were your captains.

Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord because they were a reed staff ¹  for the house of Israel;

I will turn you into a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites! ¹  For the Lord has a covenant lawsuit ²  against the people of Israel. ³  For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land, nor do they acknowledge God. ⁴ 

I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³  the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴  I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶  the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷  The sovereign Lord has spoken!

“I will attack ¹  Judah and all who live in Jerusalem. ²  I will remove ³  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ⁴  as well as the very memory ⁵  of the pagan priests. ⁶ 

Wail, you who live in the market district, ¹  for all the merchants ²  will disappear ³  and those who count money ⁴  will be removed. ⁵ 

Their wealth will be stolen and their houses ruined! They will not live in the houses they have built, nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted.

and said to him, “Hurry, speak to this young man ¹  as follows: ‘Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls ²  because of the multitude of people and animals there.

with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ¹ 

I will set ¹  your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, ²  for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness ¹  and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against ²  the inhabitants of the land.

some evil people ¹  have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, ²  saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before). ³