And I shall stretch over Yerushalayim the measuring line of Shomeron and the plummet of the house of Aḥaḇ, and shall wipe Yerushalayim as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
“So I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake from her place, in the wrath of יהוה of hosts and in the day of the heat of His displeasure.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from dread of יהוה and the splendour of His excellency, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.
The earth shall stagger like a drunkard. And it shall totter like a hut, and its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.
For the city of defence is lonely, a home forsaken and left like a wilderness – there the calf feeds, and there it lies down, and shall consume its branches.
How perverse of you! Should the potter be reckoned as the clay? Should what is made say of its Maker, “He did not make me”? And what is formed say of Him who formed it, “He did not understand”?
And every passage of the ordained staff which יהוה lays on him, shall be with tambourines and lyres, when He shall fight with it, battling with a brandishing arm.
For the displeasure of יהוה is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their divisions. He shall put them under the ban, He shall give them over to the slaughter,
“A lion has come up from his bush, and the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has set out from his place to make your land a ruin. Your cities are laid waste, without inhabitant.
Then Yoḥanan son of Qarĕaḥ spoke secretly to Geḏalyahu in Mitspah, saying, “Please let me go and strike Yishma‛ĕl son of Nethanyah, without anyone knowing it. Why should he murder you, and so let all the Yehuḏim who are gathered to you be scattered, and the remnant in Yehuḏah perish?”
“Yisra’ĕl is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away. First the sovereign of Ashshur devoured him, and now, at last, this Neḇuḵaḏretstsar sovereign of Baḇel has broken his bones.”
“Neḇuḵaḏretstsar the sovereign of Baḇel has devoured us, he has crushed us, he has made us an empty vessel, he has swallowed us up like a monster. He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has driven us away.
“And I shall scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I shall send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
“Burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed. And you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and scatter one-third in the wind. And I shall draw out a sword after them.
And I shall stretch out My hand against them and make the land a wasteland, even more waste than the wilderness toward Diḇlah, in all their dwelling places. And they shall know that I am יהוה.’” ’ ”
“In all your dwelling places the cities shall be destroyed and the high places deserted, so that your slaughter-places are broken and bear their punishment. And your idols shall be smashed and made to cease, and your sun-pillars cut down, and your works blotted out.
She is empty, even emptiness and waste! And the heart has melted, and the knees have knocked together, and much pain is in all loins, and all their faces have become flushed.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Yerushalayim shall be trampled underfoot by the nations until the times of the nations are filled.
But not finding them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the city rulers, crying out, “They who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
“And יהוה shall scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other mighty ones, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.