You are to speak this word to them: Let my eyes overflow with tears; day and night may they not stop, for my dearest people have been destroyed by a crushing blow, an extremely severe wound.
Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘As your god lives, Dan,’ or, ‘As the way , of Beer-sheba lives’ – they will fall, never to rise again.
What can I say on your behalf? What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?
Then say, “In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.” ’ The words of Jeremiah end here.
say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ For they have turned their back to me and not their face, yet in their time of disaster they beg, ‘Rise up and save us! ’
who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty one together (they lie down, they do not rise again; they are extinguished, put out like a wick ) –
this is the word the Lord has spoken against him: Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and scorns you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons, because of the iniquity of their ancestors. They will never rise up to possess a land or fill the surface of the earth with cities.
They abandoned all the commands of the Lord their God. They made cast images for themselves, two calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served Baal.
In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee #– #all the land of Naphtali #– #and deported the people to Assyria.