1-5. “Run for your lives, children of Benjamin!Get out of Jerusalem, and now!Give a blast on the ram’s horn in Blastville.Send up smoke signals from Smoketown.Doom pours out of the north—massive terror!I have likened my dear daughter Zionto a lovely meadow.Well, now ‘shepherds’ from the north have discovered herand brought in their flocks of soldiers.They’ve pitched camp all around her,and plan where they’ll ‘graze.’And then, ‘Prepare to attack! The fight is on!To arms! We’ll strike at noon!Oh, it’s too late? Day is dying?Evening shadows are upon us?Well, up anyway! We’ll attack by nightand tear apart her defenses stone by stone.’”
10-11. “I’ve got something to say. Is anybody listening?I’ve a warning to post. Will anyone notice?It’s hopeless! Their ears are stuffed with wax—deaf as a post, blind as a bat.It’s hopeless! They’ve tuned out God.They don’t want to hear from me.But I’m bursting with the wrath of God.I can’t hold it in much longer.
11-12. “So dump it on the children in the streets.Let it loose on the gangs of youth.For no one’s exempt: Husbands and wives will be taken,the old and those ready to die;Their homes will be given away—all they own, even their loved ones—When I give the signalagainst all who live in this country.”God’s Decree.
13-15. “Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar,little people and big people alike.Prophets and priests and everyone in betweentwist words and doctor truth.My people are broken—shattered!—and they put on Band-Aids,Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’But things are not ‘just fine’!Do you suppose they are embarrassedover this outrage?No, they have no shame.They don’t even know how to blush.There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottomand there’s no getting up.As far as I’m concerned,they’re finished.”God has spoken.