For prior to those days neither people nor animals had wages. There was no safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I turned everyone against his neighbour.
I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to keep me alive. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.
‘For this is what the Lord says: Don’t enter a house where a mourning feast is taking place. Don’t go to lament or sympathise with them, for I have removed my peace from these people as well as my faithful love and compassion.’ This is the Lord’s declaration.
Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you detest Zion? Why do you strike us with no hope of healing for us? We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says your compassionate Lord.
Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such intense bitterness; but your love has delivered me from the Pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the Lord has a sword that devours from one end of the earth to the other. No one has peace.