Jerusalem

Wash from evil thy heart, O Jerusalem, That thou mayest be saved, Till when dost thou lodge in thy heart Thoughts of thy strength?

Make ye mention to the nations, Lo, sound ye to Jerusalem: `Besiegers are coming from the land afar off, And they give forth against cities of Judah their voice.

Go to and fro in streets of Jerusalem, And see, I pray you, and know, And seek in her broad places, if ye find a man, If there be one doing judgment, seeking stedfastness--Then am I propitious to her.

Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa blow ye a trumpet, And over Beth-Haccerem lift ye up a flame, For evil hath been seen from the north, And great destruction.

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She is the city to be inspected, Wholly--she is oppression in her midst.

Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

Art thou not seeing what they are doing In cities of Judah, and in streets of Jerusalem?

And I have caused to cease from cities of Judah, And from streets of Jerusalem, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, Voice of bridegroom, and voice of bride, For the land doth become a desolation!

At that time, an affirmation of Jehovah, They bring the bones of the kings of Judah, And the bones of its princes, And the bones of the priests, And the bones of the prophets, And the bones of inhabitants of Jerusalem, Out of their graves,

And I make Jerusalem become heaps, A habitation of dragons, And the cities of Judah I make a desolation, Without inhabitant.

`Hear ye the words of this covenant, and ye have spoken unto the men of Judah, and unto the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

And Jehovah saith unto me, `Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of this covenant, And ye have done them.

And Jehovah saith unto me: `A conspiracy is found in the men of Judah, And in the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And the cities of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem have gone, And they have cried unto the gods, To whom they are making perfume, And they give no deliverance at all to them, In the time of their vexation.

For--the number of thy cities have been thy gods, O Judah, And--the number of the streets of Jerusalem Ye have placed altars to a shameful thing, Altars to make perfume to Baal.

Thus do I mar the excellency of Judah, And the great excellency of Jerusalem.

And thou hast said unto them, `Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am filling all the inhabitants of this land, And the kings who sit for David on his throne, And the priests, and the prophets, And all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, With drunkenness,

Thine adulteries, and thy neighings, The wickedness of thy whoredom, on heights in a field, I have seen thine abominations. Woe to thee, O Jerusalem, Thou art not cleansed, after when is it again?

Mourned hath Judah, and her gates have languished, They have mourned to the earth, And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up.

And the people to whom they are prophesying, Are cast into out-places of Jerusalem, Because of the famine, and of the sword, And they have none burying them, Them, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, And I have poured out upon them this evil.

And I have given them for a trembling To all kingdoms of the earth, Because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, For that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who hath pity on thee, O Jerusalem? And who doth bemoan for thee? And who turneth aside to ask of thy welfare?

Thus said Jehovah unto me: `Go, and thou hast stood in the gate of the sons of the people, by which kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all gates of Jerusalem,

and thou hast said unto them: Hear a word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are coming in by these gates,

Thus said Jehovah, Take ye heed to yourselves, And ye bear not a burden on the day of rest, Nor have ye brought it in by the gates of Jerusalem.