I go about blackened, ¹  but not by the sun; in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger. ¹ 

Let darkness and the deepest shadow ¹  claim it; ²  let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day ³  terrify it!

My skin has turned dark on me; ¹  my body ²  is hot with fever. ³ 

For ¹  I am like a wineskin ²  dried up in smoke. ³  I do not forget your statutes.

I was concerned for my holy reputation ¹  which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went.

Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ¹  those who want to harm me speak destructive words; all day long they say deceitful things.

Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ¹  and the people became fuel for the fire. ²  People had no compassion on one another. ³ 

The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹ 

And now, what do we have here?” ¹  says the Lord. “Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing, those who rule over them taunt,” ²  says the Lord, “and my name is constantly slandered ³  all day long.

So I said, ¹  “Oh, my dear people, ²  put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now ³  that destructive army ⁴  will come against us.”

For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ¹  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ²  of his ³  eye.

“Blessed are you when people ¹  hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil ²  on account of the Son of Man!

and say to the scrub land of the Negev, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, ¹  I am about to start a fire in you, ²  and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The flaming fire will not be extinguished, and the whole surface of the ground from the Negev to the north will be scorched by it.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation ¹  which you profaned among the nations where you went.

I will magnify ¹  my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.