CHAPTER 6
1 Sons of Benjamin, be ye comforted in the middle of Jerusalem, and make ye noise with a clarion in Tekoa, and raise ye a banner on Bethhaccerem; for why evil and great sorrow is seen from the north.
2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a fair woman and delicate.
3 Shepherds and their flocks shall come to it; they have pitched tents in it in compass; each man shall feed them, that be under his hand.
4 Hallow ye battle on it. Rise ye together, and ascend we [or go we up] in midday. Woe to us, for the day hath bowed down, for shadows be made longer in the eventide.
5 Rise ye, and ascend we [or go we up] in the night, and destroy we the houses thereof.
6 For the Lord of hosts saith these things, Cut ye down the tree thereof, and shed ye earth about Jerusalem; this is the city of visitation; all false challenge is in the midst thereof.
7 As a cistern maketh his water cold, so it made his malice cold; wickedness and destroying shall ever be heard therein before me, sickness and wound.
8 Jerusalem, be thou taught, lest peradventure my soul go away from thee; lest peradventure I set thee forsaken, a land unhabitable.
9 The Lord of hosts saith these things, They shall gather till to a raisin, they shall gather the remnants of Israel as in a vinery [or a vine]; turn thine hand, as a gatherer of grapes to the basket.
10 To whom shall I speak, and to whom shall I say witnessing, that he hear? Lo! the ears of them be uncircumcised, and they may not hear; lo! the word of the Lord is made to them into despite, and they shall not receive it.
11 Therefore I am full of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and I travailed suffering. Shed thou [or Pour] out vengeance on a little child withoutforth, and on the counsel of young men together; for a man with his wife shall be taken, and an eld [or old] man with him that is full of days.
12 And the houses of them, the fields and wives together, shall go to other men; for I shall stretch forth mine hand on the dwellers of the land, saith the Lord.
13 For from the less unto the greater, all study to avarice; and all do guile, from the prophet unto the priest.
14 And they healed the sorrow of the daughter of my people with evil fame, saying, Peace, peace, and no peace was.
15 They be shamed, that did abomination; yea, rather they were not shamed by confusion, and they could not be ashamed. Wherefore they shall fall down among them that shall fall down; they shall fall down in the time of their visitation, saith the Lord.
16 The Lord saith these things, Stand ye on ways, and see ye, and ask ye of [the] eld [or old] paths, which is the good way; and go ye therein, and ye shall find refreshing to your souls. And they said, We shall not go.
17 And I ordained espyers, either beholders, on you, and I said, Hear ye the voice of a trump. And they said, We shall not hear.
18 Therefore, heathen men, hear ye, and, thou congregation, know, how great things I shall do to them.
19 Thou earth, hear, lo! I shall bring evils on this people, the fruit of their thoughts; for they heard not my words, and casted away my law.
20 Whereto bring ye to me incense from Sheba, and a tree of spicery smelling sweetly from a far land? Your burnt sacrifices be not accepted, and your slain sacrifices pleased not me.
21 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I shall give fallings into this people, and fathers and sons together, a neighbour and kinsman, shall fall in them, and shall perish.
22 The Lord God saith these things, Lo! a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great folk shall rise together from the ends of [the] earth.
23 It shall take arrow and shield; it is cruel, and shall not have mercy; the voice thereof shall sound as the sea, and they made ready as a man to battle shall ascend [or go up] on horses against thee, thou daughter of Zion.
24 We [have] heard the fame thereof, our hands be made numb; tribulation hath taken us, sorrows have taken us as a woman travailing of child.
25 Do not ye go out to the fields, and go ye not in the way, for the sword of the enemy, dread in compass.
26 The daughter of my people, be thou girded with hair-shirt, and be thou sprinkled together with ashes; make to thee mourning of [the] one alone begotten son, a bitter wailing, for why a waster shall come suddenly [up] on you.
27 I gave thee to be a strong prover in my people, and thou shalt know, and prove the way of them.
28 All these princes bowing away, going guilefully, be metal and iron; all be corrupt.
29 The bellow failed, lead is wasted in the fire, the weller welled in vain; for the malices of them be not wasted.
30 Call ye them reprovable silver, for the Lord hath cast them away.