1Woe to the rebellious children! This is the LORD's declaration. They carry out a plan, but not Mine; they make an alliance, but against My will, piling sin on top of sin.
5everyone will be ashamed because of a people who can't help. They are of no benefit, they are no help; they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.
6An oracle about the animals of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not help them.
14Its collapse will be like the shattering of a potter's jar, crushed to pieces, so that not even a fragment of pottery will be found among its shattered remains-- no fragment large enough to take fire from a hearth or scoop water from a cistern."
15For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:" You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence. But you are not willing."
17One thousand will flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you will flee, until you alone remain like a solitary pole on a mountaintop or a banner on a hill.
18Therefore the LORD is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. All who wait patiently for Him are happy.
19For you people will live on Zion in Jerusalem and will never cry again. He will show favor to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you.
23Then He will send rain for your seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.
26The moonlight will be as bright as the sunlight, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter--like the light of seven days--on the day that the LORD bandages His people's injuries and heals the wounds He inflicted.
28His breath is like an overflowing torrent that rises to the neck. He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction and to put a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
29Your singing will be like that on the night of a holy festival, and your heart will rejoice like one who walks to the music of a flute, going up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30And the LORD will make the splendor of His voice heard and reveal His arm striking in angry wrath and a flame of consuming fire, in driving rain, a torrent, and hailstones.
32And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD brings down on him will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres; He will fight against him with brandished weapons.
33Indeed! Topheth has been ready for the king for a long time now. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.