Zion

Thy holy cities have been a wilderness, Zion a wilderness hath been, Jerusalem a desolation.

Who hath heard anything like this? Who hath seen anything like these? Is earth caused to bring forth in one day? Born is a nation at once? For she hath been pained, Zion also hath borne her sons.

Turn back, O backsliding sons, An affirmation of Jehovah. For I have ruled over you, And taken you one of a city, and two of a family, And have brought you to Zion,

Lift up an ensign Zionward, Strengthen yourselves, stand not still, For evil I am bringing in from the north, And a great destruction.

For a voice as of a sick woman I have heard, Distress, as of one bringing forth a first-born, The voice of the daughter of Zion, She bewaileth herself, she spreadeth out her hands, `Woe to me now, for weary is my soul of slayers!'

The comely and the delicate one I have cut off, The daughter of Zion.

Bow and javelin they take hold of, Fierce it is , and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea doth sound, And on horses they ride, set in array as a man of war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion.

Lo, the voice of a cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off, Is Jehovah not in Zion? is her king not in her? Wherefore have they provoked Me with their graven images, With the vanities of a foreigner?

For--a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How have we been spoiled! We have been greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because they have cast down our tabernacles.

Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Zion hath Thy soul loathed? Wherefore hast Thou smitten us, And there is no healing to us? Looking for peace, and there is no good, And for a time of healing, and lo, terror.

`Micah the Morashtite hath been prophesying in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he saith unto all the people of Judah, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Zion is a plowed field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mountain of the house is for high places of a forest.

For I increase health to thee, And from thy strokes I do heal thee, An affirmation of Jehovah, For `Outcast' they have called to thee, `Zion it is , there is none seeking for her.'

For there is a day, Cried have watchmen on mount Ephraim, `Rise, and we go up to Zion, unto Jehovah our God;

And they have come in, And have sung in the high place of Zion, And flowed unto the goodness of Jehovah, For wheat, and for new wine, and for oil, And for the young of the flock and herd, And their soul hath been as a watered garden, And they add not to grieve any more.

To Zion they ask the way, Thitherward are their faces: Come in, and we are joined unto Jehovah, A covenant age-during--not forgotten.

A voice of fugitives and escaped ones Is from the land of Babylon, To declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, The vengeance of His temple.

Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousnesses, Come, and we recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

And I have recompensed to Babylon, And to all inhabitants of Chaldea, All the evil that they have done in Zion, Before your eyes--an affirmation of Jehovah.

My wrong, and that of my flesh is on Babylon, Say doth the inhabitant of Zion, And my blood is on the inhabitants of Chaldea, Say doth Jerusalem.

The ways of Zion are mourning, Without any coming at the appointed time, All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, Her virgins are afflicted--and she hath bitterness.

And go out from the daughter of Zion doth all her honour, Her princes have been as harts--They have not found pasture, And they go powerless before a pursuer.

Spread forth hath Zion her hands, There is no comforter for her, Jehovah hath charged concerning Jacob, His neighbours are his adversaries, Jerusalem hath become impure among them.

How doth the Lord cloud in His anger the daughter of Zion, He hath cast from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.

He hath trodden His bow as an enemy, Stood hath His right hand as an adversary, And He slayeth all the desirable ones of the eye, In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He hath poured out as fire His fury.

And He shaketh as a garden His tabernacle, He hath destroyed His appointed place, Jehovah hath forgotten in Zion the appointed time and sabbath, And despiseth, in the indignation of His anger, king and priest.