13. So this sin will become your downfall.You will be like a high wall that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse;it crumbles suddenly, in a flash.
14. It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged.Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enoughto scoop a hot coal from a fireor to skim off water from a cistern.”
15. For this is what the master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says:“If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered;if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength,but you are unwilling.
16. You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’so you will indeed flee.You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’so your pursuers will be fast.
17. One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away,until the remaining few are as isolatedas a flagpole on a mountaintopor a signal flag on a hill.”