Your land `is' a desolation, your cities burnt with fire, Your ground, before you strangers are consuming it, And a desolation as overthrown by strangers!
For Thou hast left Thy people, the house of Jacob. For they have been filled from the east, And `are' sorcerers like the Philistines, And with the children of strangers strike hands.
Therefore by this is the iniquity of Jacob covered, And this `is' all the fruit -- To take away his sin, in His setting all the stones of an altar, As chalkstones beaten in pieces, They rise not -- shrines and images.
And I say, `Till when, O Lord?' And He saith, `Surely till cities have been wasted without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the ground be wasted -- a desolation,
Swallowed up hath the Lord, He hath not pitied any of the pleasant places of Jacob, He hath broken down in His wrath The fortresses of the daughter of Judah, He hath caused to come to the earth, He polluted the kingdom and its princes.
And thou hast said: I go up against a land of unwalled villages, I go in to those at rest, dwelling confidently, All of them are dwelling without walls, And bar and doors they have not.
And rise doth a tumult among thy people, And all thy fortresses are spoiled, As the spoiling of Shalman of Beth-Arbel, In a day of battle, Mother against sons dashed in pieces.
And he answereth and speaketh unto me, saying: `This `is' a word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by a force, nor by power, But -- by My Spirit, said Jehovah of Hosts.