The Lord says, “Shout out loud. Don’t hold back. Shout out loud like a trumpet. Tell my people what they have done against their God; tell the family of Jacob about their sins.
Many of my people are now lost in Assyria. Some have run away to Egypt. But at that time a great trumpet will be blown, and all those people will come and worship the Lord on that holy mountain in Jerusalem.
A voice says, “Cry out!” Then I said, “What shall I cry out?” “Say all people are like the grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
This is what the Lord says: “People of Israel, you say I divorced your mother. Then where is the paper that proves it? Or do you think I sold you to pay a debt? Because of the evil things you did, I sold you. Because of the times she turned against me, your mother was sent away.
The leaders who are to guard the people are blind; they don’t know what they are doing. All of them are like quiet dogs that don’t know how to bark. They lie down and dream and love to sleep.
“Go and speak to the people of Jerusalem, saying: This is what the Lord says: ‘I remember how faithful you were to me when you were a young nation. You loved me like a young bride. You followed me through the desert, a land that had never been planted.
In the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king, a fast was announced. All the people of Jerusalem and everyone who had come into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah were supposed to give up eating to honor the Lord.
Your prophets saw visions, but they were false and worth nothing. They did not point out your sins to keep you from being captured. They preached what was false and led you wrongly.
“Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning! The enemy swoops down on the Lord’s people like an eagle. The Israelites have broken my agreement and have turned against my teachings.
Say these things and encourage the people and tell them what is wrong in their lives, with all authority. Do not let anyone treat you as if you were unimportant.
After the vision of these things I looked, and there before me was an open door in heaven. And the same voice that spoke to me before, that sounded like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”