“ ‘I’m against you, Jerusalem. You are the city that is in the valley and on the rock in the plain,’ ” declares the Lord. “ ‘But you ask, “Who can attack us? Who can enter our places of refuge?”
“This is what the Lord says about the palace of the king of Judah: This palace is like Gilead to me, like the top of Lebanon. I will certainly turn it into a desert, into cities that no one lives in.
The sound of crying is heard on the hills. It is the crying and the pleading of the people of Israel. They have become crooked and have forgotten the Lord their God.
You have frightened other people. Your arrogance has deceived you. You live on rocky cliffs and occupy the highest places in the hills. Even though you build your nest as high as an eagle, I will bring you down from there,” declares the Lord.
Say, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: A large eagle came to Lebanon. It had large wings with long, colorful feathers. It took hold of the top of a cedar tree.
They don’t pray to me sincerely, even though they cry in their beds and make cuts on their bodies while praying for grain and new wine. They have turned against me.
“ ‘How horrible it will be for the one who uses violence to get things for his own household in order to set his nest up high and save himself from disaster.’