²³ Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴ We have heard the report of it; our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

⁶ For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.

³⁰ You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your life.

³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.

¹ Open your doors, Lebanon, That the fire may devour your cedars.

² Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, Because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, For the strong forest has come down.

⁹ Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!

⁴ Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh.

² Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.

¹⁴ They haven't cried to me with their heart, But they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

¹⁵ I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, And seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly."

¹ "Come, and let us return to Yahweh; For he has torn us to pieces, And he will heal us; He has injured us, And he will bind up our wounds.

⁴ In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

⁵ They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, [saying], Come you, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

¹⁶ As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh.

²⁸ You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss.

⁵ For thus says Yahweh: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

⁶ Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

¹³ Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, [and] of the rock of the plain, says Yahweh; you that say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

²¹ A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

²¹ He looked at the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is your dwelling-place, Your nest is set in the rock.