How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labour.
‘This is what the Lord God says: Remove the turban, and take off the crown. Things will not remain as they are; exalt the lowly and bring down the exalted.
How the Lord has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger! He has thrown down Israel’s glory from heaven to earth. He did not acknowledge his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord is just, for I have rebelled against his command. Listen, all you people; look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
Jerusalem has sinned grievously; therefore, she has become an object of scorn. All who honoured her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away.
Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Recognise how evil and bitter it is for you to abandon the Lord your God and to have no fear of me. This is the declaration of the Lord God of Armies.
Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
When they gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out in the Lord’s presence. They fasted that day, and there they confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
They entered and possessed it, but they did not obey you or live according to your instructions. They failed to perform all you commanded them to do, and so you have brought all this disaster on them.
Lord, see how I am in distress. I am churning within; my heart is broken, for I have been very rebellious. Outside, the sword takes the children; inside, there is death.