¹⁹ I called for my lovers, they -- they have deceived me, My priests and my elders in the city have expired; When they have sought food for themselves, Then they give back their soul.

²⁰ See, O Jehovah, and look attentively, To whom Thou hast acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet?

¹¹ All her people are sighing -- seeking bread, They have given their desirable things For food to refresh the body; See, O Jehovah, and behold attentively, For I have been lightly esteemed.

² She weepeth sore in the night, And her tear `is' on her cheeks, There is no comforter for her out of all her lovers, All her friends dealt treacherously by her, They have been to her for enemies.

¹³ My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

¹⁴ Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

¹⁵ Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

¹⁶ To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

¹⁷ My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my `mother's' womb.

¹⁸ Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹ Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

¹² Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.

¹⁷ While we exist -- consumed are our eyes for our vain help, In our watch-tower we have watched for a nation `that' saveth not.

⁷ Purer were her Nazarites than snow, Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, Of sapphire their form.

⁸ Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered -- it hath been as wood.

⁹ Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

⁷ `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Thus do ye say unto the king of Judah, who is sending you unto Me, to seek Me: Lo, the force of Pharaoh that is coming out to you for help hath turned back to its land, to Egypt,

⁸ and the Chaldeans have turned back, and fought against this city, and captured it, and burnt it with fire.

⁹ `Thus said Jehovah: Lift not up your souls saying, The Chaldeans surely go from off us, for they do not go;

¹⁴ all loving thee have forgotten thee, Thee they do not seek, For with the stroke of an enemy I smote thee, The chastisement of a fierce one, Because of the abundance of thy iniquity, Mighty have been thy sins!

¹³ Why do ye die, thou and thy people, by sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as Jehovah hath spoken concerning the nation that doth not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴ `And ye do not hearken unto the words of the prophets who are speaking unto you, saying, Ye do not serve the king of Babylon, -- for falsehood they are prophesying to you.

¹⁵ For I have not sent them -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and they are prophesying in My name falsely, so as to drive you out, and ye have perished, ye, and the prophets who are prophesying to you.'

¹¹ For both prophet and priest have been profane, Yea, in My house I found their wickedness, An affirmation of Jehovah.

¹² Therefore is their way to them as slippery places, Into thick darkness they are driven, And they have fallen in it, For I bring in against them evil, The year of their inspection, An affirmation of Jehovah.

¹³ And in prophets of Samaria I have seen folly, They have prophesied by Baal, And cause my people -- Israel -- to err.

¹⁴ And in prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing, Committing adultery, and walking falsely, Yea, they strengthened the hands of evil doers, So that they have not turned back Each from his wickedness, They have been to me -- all of them -- as Sodom, And its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

¹⁵ Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, concerning the prophets: Lo, I am causing them to eat wormwood, And have caused them to drink water of gall, For, from prophets of Jerusalem Hath profanity gone forth to all the land.

¹⁵ Therefore, thus said Jehovah concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, and I have not sent them, and they are saying, Sword and famine is not in this land: By sword and by famine are these prophets consumed.

¹⁶ And the people to whom they are prophesying, Are cast into out-places of Jerusalem, Because of the famine, and of the sword, And they have none burying them, Them, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, And I have poured out upon them this evil.

¹⁷ And thou hast said unto them this word: Tears come down mine eyes night and day, And they do not cease, For, `with' a great breach, Broken hath been the virgin daughter of my people, A very grievous stroke.

¹⁸ If I have gone forth to the field, Then, lo, the pierced of the sword! And if I have entered the city, Then, lo, the diseased of famine! For both prophet and priest have gone up and down Unto a land that they knew not.

²⁸ And where `are' thy gods, that thou hast made to thyself? Let them arise, if they may save thee, In the time of thy vexation, For -- the number of thy cities have been thy gods, O Judah,