¶A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten Yahweh their God.
They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba; Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your strong defense. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine branches of a strange god.
¶“Of whom were you anxious and fearful When you lied and did not remember Me, Nor even put Me upon your heart? Was I not silent even for a long time So you do not fear Me?
“On all the bare heights in the wilderness Destroyers have come, For a sword of Yahweh is devouring From one end of the land even to the other; There is no peace for any flesh.
‘For My people have forgotten Me; They burn incense to worthless gods, And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,
“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been ravished? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the wilderness, And you have polluted a land With your harlotry and with your evil.
“With weeping they will come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.”
‘Cut off your hair and cast it away, And lift up a funeral lamentation on the bare heights; For Yahweh has rejected and abandoned The generation of His wrath.’
Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.’ ”
So Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; And Judah has multiplied fortified cities, But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.
And the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary because your way was contrary to me.