¹⁷ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

¹ My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

² Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

³ Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

⁵ He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶ He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

⁸ Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

⁹ The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

¹² They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

¹³ If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

¹⁴ I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou are my mother, and my sister.

¹⁵ And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

¹ I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

² Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

³ And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

⁴ And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

⁵ And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

⁶ It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.

⁷ Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

⁸ Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

⁹ For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

¹¹ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

¹² That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

¹³ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

¹⁴ And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵ And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.