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6:1  Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Teko′a, and raise a signal on Beth-hacche′rem; for evil looms out of the north, and great destruction.
6:2  The comely and delicately bred I will destroy, the daughter of Zion.
6:3  Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch their tents around her, they shall pasture, each in his place.
6:4  “Prepare war against her; up, and let us attack at noon!” “Woe to us, for the day declines, for the shadows of evening lengthen!”
6:5  “Up, and let us attack by night, and destroy her palaces!”
6:6  For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Hew down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city which must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.
6:7  As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me.
6:8  Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”
6:9  Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer pass your hand again over its branches.”
6:10  To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it.
6:11  Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding it in. “Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the old folk and the very aged.
6:12  Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord.
6:13  “For from the least to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, every one deals falsely.
6:14  They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
6:15  Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the Lord.
6:16  Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
6:17  I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not give heed.’
6:18  Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
6:19  Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not given heed to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
6:20  To what purpose does frankincense come to me from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
6:21  Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.’”
6:22  Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
6:23  They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy, the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”
6:24  We have heard the report of it, our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in travail.
6:25  Go not forth into the field, nor walk on the road; for the enemy has a sword, terror is on every side.
6:26  O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
6:27  “I have made you an assayer and tester among my people, that you may know and assay their ways.
6:28  They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly.
6:29  The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
6:30  Refuse silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them.”