For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the LORD of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.*
They said to him, Thus says Chizkiyahu, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
The couriers went forth in haste by the king's mitzvah, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
For in this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest. Mo'av will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.
They said to him, *Thus says Chizkiyahu, 'This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.
Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.
I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.
Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Ya`akov, and has not pitied: He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Yehudah; He has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom and the princes of it.
The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Tziyon; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
Your doom is come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time is come, the day is near, [a day of] tumult, and not [of] joyful shouting, on the mountains.
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Yisra'el, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, *Cover us!* and the hills, *Fall on us!*
The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion.