Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry them down as a present to the man: a little balm and a little honey, gum, resin, pistachio nuts, and almonds.
Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter Chaldea! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
You shall say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is struck down with a crushing blow, with a very grievous wound.
Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself signposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with your tambourines and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
There is no assuaging your hurt; your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?