Yahweh says: “Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem, and sound the alarm throughout the land of Judah! Cry out! Shout it out, and say, ‘Gather together and let us run into the fortified cities!’
Why are we just sitting here? Let’s band together and go inside our walled cities and await our death, since Yahweh our God has condemned us to die. He has given us our bitter poison to drink, for we have sinned against him.
“People of Benjamin, flee for your lives! Leave Jerusalem! Blow the shofar to warn the city of Tekoa! Send up a smoke signal at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster looms out of the north, a great destruction threatens you.
However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, we decided, ‘We must protect ourselves! Let’s go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Babylonians and the Syrians.’ That is why we are living now in Jerusalem.”
Why is the land burned and destroyed, left like an uninhabited wilderness? Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is the prophet with a word from Yahweh to explain it?
As often as disaster passes by, it will carry you away; morning by morning, day after day, it will sweep you away!” When you fully understand this message, it will bring nothing but terror to you!