Hardly have they been planted, hardly have they been sown, hardly has their stock taken root in the earth, when He shall blow on them and they wither, and a whirlwind take them away like stubble.
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and shall decide with straightness for the meek ones of the earth, and shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and slay the wrong with the breath of His lips.
nations rushing like the rushing of many waters. But He shall rebuke them and they shall flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like whirling dust before the whirlwind.
For Topheth was ordained of old, even for the sovereign it has been prepared. He has made it deep and large, its fire pit with much wood; the breath of יהוה, as a stream of burning sulphur, is burning in it!
“See, I am putting a spirit in him, and he shall hear a report and return to his own land. And I shall cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
“Who raised up the righteous one from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made sovereigns submit to him? He gave them as the dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.
“Thus said יהוה, ‘Write this man down as childless, a strong man who is not to prosper in his days, for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of Dawiḏ
“Though he bears fruit among his brothers, an east wind comes, a wind from יהוה comes up from the wilderness, and it dries up his fountain, and his spring becomes dry – it plunders a treasure of all desirable objects.
Therefore they shall be like a morning cloud, and like dew that goes away early, like chaff blown off from a threshing-floor, and like smoke from a window.
And יהוה has commanded concerning you, “Your name shall no longer be sown. From the house of your mighty ones I shall cut off the carved image and the moulded image. I shall appoint your grave, for you have been of no account.”
“When you looked for much, then see, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I would blow on it. Why?” declares יהוה of hosts. “Because of My House which lies in ruins, while each of you runs to his own house.
“And I scattered them with a storm wind among all the gentiles which they had not known. And the land was laid waste behind them, no one passing through or returning, for they made the pleasant land a waste.”
And יהוה shall appear for them, and His arrow go forth like lightning, and the Master יהוה sound the ram’s horn. And He shall go with whirlwinds from the south,