Like a storm, my punishment will blow all your shepherds away and send your friends into captivity. Then you will really be ashamed and disgraced because of all the wicked things you did.
All of us are dirty with sin. All the right things we have done are like filthy pieces of cloth. All of us are like dead leaves, and our sins, like the wind, have carried us away.
So this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you evil people will be hungry. My servants will drink, but you evil people will be thirsty. My servants will be happy, but you evil people will be shamed.
You will eventually leave that place with your hands on your head, like captives. You trusted those countries, but you will not be helped by them, because the Lord has rejected them.
The priests didn’t ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ The people who know the teachings didn’t know me. The leaders turned against me. The prophets prophesied in the name of Baal and worshiped useless idols.
But the Lord is with me like a strong warrior, so those who are chasing me will trip and fall; they will not defeat me. They will be ashamed because they have failed, and their shame will never be forgotten.
All those nations who were your friends have forgotten you. They don’t care about you. I have hurt you as an enemy would. I punished you very hard, because your guilt was so great and your sins were so many.
Judah, you destroyed nation, what are you doing? Why do you put on your finest dress and decorate yourself with gold jewelry? Why do you put color around your eyes? You make yourself beautiful, but it is all useless. Your lovers hate you; they want to kill you.
What Israel does is as useless as chasing the wind; he chases the east wind all day. They tell more and more lies and do more and more violence. They make agreements with Assyria, and they send a gift of olive oil to Egypt.
Israel is doing well among the nations, but the Lord will send a wind from the east, coming from the desert, that will dry up his springs and wells of water. He will destroy from their treasure houses everything of value.
“How terrible it will be for the useless shepherd who abandoned the flock. A sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will lose all its strength, and his right eye will go blind.”