4
1 If thou wilt make teshuvah, O Yisroel,
saith Hashem,
return unto Me;
and if thou wilt put away thine shikkutzim (abominations) out of My sight,
and shalt not waver.[a]
2 And thou shalt swear, Chai Hashem(as surely as HASHEM lives),
in emes, in mishpat, and in tzedakah;
and the Goyim shall bless themselves in Him,
and in Him shall they glory.
3 For thus saith Hashem
to Ish Yehudah and Yerushalayim:
Break up your unplowed ground,
and sow not among kotzim (thorns).
4 Circumcise yourselves to Hashem,
and take the mohel knife to the arelot of your levav,
ye Ish Yehudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim:
lest My fury break out like eish,
and burn that none can quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.
5 Declare ye in Yehudah, and publish in Yerushalayim, and say:
Blow ye the shofar in HaAretz.
Cry out, gather together, and say:
Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
6 Raise up a nes (a banner, a flag pointing to the place of refuge) over Tziyon;
take refuge, delay not;
for I will bring ra'ah (evil, disaster) from the tzafon (north),
and shever gadol (great destruction).
7 The aryeh (lion) is come up from his thicket,
and the Mashkhit Goyim (Destroyer of the Nations),[b] is on his way,
he is gone forth from his place to make thy eretz desolate;
and thy cities shall be made to lie in ruins, without an inhabitant.
8 For this gird you with sackcloth,
lament and wail;
for the charon af Hashem
is not turned away from us.
9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith Hashem, that the lev HaMelech shall be disheartened, and the lev hasarim; and the kohanim shall be horror-struck, and the nevi'im dumbfounded. 10 Then said I, Adonoi Hashem! Surely Thou hast greatly misled HaAm HaZeh and Yerushalayim, saying, Shalom yeheyeh lachem (Ye shall have shalom); whereas the cherev is near unto the nefesh.
11 At that time shall it be told HaAm HaZeh and Yerushalayim, A ruach tzach (a dry wind, sirocco) from the high places in the midbar toward the Bat Ami,[c] not to winnow, nor to cleanse, 12 Even a ruach maleh (strong wind) from those places shall come from Me; now also I will pronounce mishpatim against them.
13 Hinei, he[d] shall come up like ananim (clouds),
and his merkavot shall be like the whirlwind;
his susim are swifter than nesharim (eagles).
Oy lanu! (Woe unto us!) For we are ruined.
14 O Yerushalayim, wash thine lev from rah,
that thou mayest be saved.
Ad mosai (how long, how much longer)
shall thy sinful machsh'vot lodge within thee?
15 For a kol (voice) declareth from Dan,
and publisheth evil tidings from Mt Ephrayim.
16 Tell the Goyim; hinei,
spread the news to Yerushalayim,
that notzrim (besiegers) come from a far country,
and raise their voice against the cities of Yehudah.
17 As shomrim of a sadeh, they are against her all around;
because she hath been rebellious against Me,
saith Hashem.
18 Thy derech and thy deeds
have brought these things upon thee;
this is thy wickedness,
how mar (bitter) it is,
for it hath touched upon thine lev.
19 My innards, my innards!
I am pained at my very lev;
my lev is pounding in me;
I cannot keep silent,
because thou hast heard, O my nefesh, the kol shofar (sound of the shofar),
the teru'at milchamah (battle alarm of war).
20 Shever (destruction) follows after shever;
for the whole land lies in ruins;
suddenly are my ohalim destroyed,
and my canopies rega.
21 Ad mosai (how long) shall I see the nes (banner),
and hear the kol shofar?
22 For Ami is foolish,
they have not known Me;
they are stupid banim,
and they have no understanding;
they are chachamim to do evil,
but to do good they have no da'as.
23 I beheld ha'aretz, and,
hinei, it was tohu vavohu;[e]
and HaShomayim — there was no ohr.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, hinei, they quaked,
and all the hills had crumbled.
25 I beheld, and, hinei, there was no adam,
and kol oph HaShomayim fled away.
26 I beheld, and, hinei, the carmel was a midbar,
and all the cities thereof lay in ruins
before Hashem,
before the charon af Hashem.
27 For thus hath Hashem said, A wasteland shall be kol HaAretz; yet I will not make a complete end of it.
28 For this reason HaAretz shall mourn,
and HaShomayim above turn black;
because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,
and will not relent,
neither will I turn back from it.
29 Kol HaIr shall flee at the noise of the parash
and the romeh keshet (the archer);
they shall run into thickets,
and climb up among the kefim (rocks);
every city shall be deserted,
and not an ish dwell therein.
30 And thou, O plundered one,[f]
what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet,
though thou deckest thee with jewelry of zahav,
though thou paintest thy eyes with cosmetics,
in vain thou adornest thyself;
thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy nefesh.
31 For I have heard a kol (outcry) like that of a woman in travail,
and in labor pain like that of her that bringeth forth her first child,
the voice of Bat Tziyon, that waileth,
that stretcheth out her hands, saying:
Oy nah li (Woe is me now)! For my nefesh