⁸ And I have made the land a desolation, Because they have committed a trespass, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

¹⁴ And I have stretched out my hand against them, And have made the land a desolation, Even a desolation from the wilderness to Diblath, In all their dwellings, And they have known that I `am' Jehovah!'

¹⁴ Also, all the heads of the priests, and the people, having multiplied to commit a trespass according to all the abominations of the nations, and they defile the house of Jehovah that He hath sanctified in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ And Jehovah, God of their fathers, sendeth unto them by the hand of His messengers -- rising early and sending -- for He hath had pity on His people, and on His habitation,

¹⁶ and they are mocking at the messengers of God, and despising His words, and acting deceitfully with His prophets, till the going up of the fury of Jehovah against His people -- till there is no healing.

¹¹ And I say, `Till when, O Lord?' And He saith, `Surely till cities have been wasted without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the ground be wasted -- a desolation,

³ Utterly emptied is the land, and utterly spoiled, For Jehovah hath spoken this word:

⁴ Mourned, faded hath the land, Languished, faded hath the world, Languished have they -- the high place of the people of the land.

⁵ And the land hath been defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed laws, They have changed a statute, They have made void a covenant age-during.

⁶ Therefore a curse hath consumed the land, And the inhabitants in it are become desolate, Therefore consumed have been inhabitants of the land, And few men have been left.

⁷ Mourned hath the new wine, languished the vine, Sighed have all the joyful of heart.

⁸ Ceased hath the joy of tabrets, Ceased hath the noise of exulting ones, Ceased hath the joy of a harp.

⁹ With a song they drink not wine, Bitter is strong drink to those drinking it.

¹⁰ It was broken down -- a city of emptiness, Shut hath been every house from entrance.

¹¹ A cry over the wine `is' in out-places, Darkened hath been all joy, Removed hath been the joy of the land.

¹² Left in the city `is' desolation, And `with' wasting is the gate smitten.

¹⁰ And I have destroyed from them the voice of rejoicing, and the voice of joy, voice of bridegroom and voice of bride, noise of millstones, and the light of lamps.

¹¹ And all this land hath been for a waste, for an astonishment, and these nations have served the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹³ `Son of man, the land -- when it sinneth against Me to commit a trespass, and I have stretched out My hand against it, and broken for it the staff of bread, and sent into it famine, and cut off from it man and beast --

¹⁴ and these three men have been in its midst, Noah, Daniel, and Job -- they by their righteousness deliver their own soul -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁵ `If an evil beast I cause to pass through the land, and it hath bereaved, and it hath been a desolation, without any passing through because of the beast --

¹⁶ these three men in its midst: I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah -- neither sons nor daughters do they deliver; they alone are delivered, and the land is a desolation.

¹⁷ `Or -- a sword I bring in against that land, and I have said: Sword, thou dost pass over through the land, and I have cut off from it man and beast --

¹⁸ and these three men in its midst: I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah -- they deliver not sons and daughters, for they alone are delivered.

¹⁹ `Or -- pestilence I send unto that land, and I have poured out My fury against it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast --

²⁰ and Noah, Daniel, and Job, in its midst: I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah -- neither son nor daughter do they deliver; they, by their righteousness, deliver their own soul.

²¹ `For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Although My four sore judgments -- sword, and famine, and wild beast, and pestilence -- I have sent unto Jerusalem, to cut off from it man and beast,

²⁰ And I have spread out for him My snare, And he hath been caught in My net, And I have brought him in to Babylon, And pleaded with him there his trespass, That he hath trespassed against Me.

²⁹ And they have known that I `am' Jehovah, In My making the land a desolation and an astonishment, For all their abominations that they have done.

¹⁸ Even their silver, even their gold, Is not able to deliver them in a day of the wrath of Jehovah, And in the fire of His jealousy consumed is the whole land, For only a hastened end doth He make Of all the inhabitants of the land!