Oh, my anguish, my anguish!
    I writhe in pain.
Oh, the agony of my heart!
    My heart pounds within me,
    I cannot keep silent.
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet;
    I have heard the battle cry.
²⁰ Disaster follows disaster;
    the whole land lies in ruins.
In an instant my tents are destroyed,
    my shelter in a moment.
²¹ How long must I see the battle standard
    and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²² ‘My people are fools;
    they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
    they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
    they know not how to do good.’

²³ I looked at the earth,
    and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
    and their light was gone.
²⁴ I looked at the mountains,
    and they were quaking;
    all the hills were swaying.
²⁵ I looked, and there were no people;
    every bird in the sky had flown away.
²⁶ I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
    all its towns lay in ruins
    before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

²⁷ This is what the Lord says:

‘The whole land will be ruined,
    though I will not destroy it completely.
²⁸ Therefore the earth will mourn
    and the heavens above grow dark,
because I have spoken and will not relent,
    I have decided and will not turn back.’

²⁹ At the sound of horsemen and archers
    every town takes to flight.
Some go into the thickets;
    some climb up among the rocks.
All the towns are deserted;
    no one lives in them.

³⁰ What are you doing, you devastated one?
    Why dress yourself in scarlet
    and put on jewels of gold?
Why highlight your eyes with makeup?
    You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
    they want to kill you.

³¹ I hear a cry as of a woman in labour,
    a groan as of one bearing her first child –
the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
    stretching out her hands and saying,
‘Alas! I am fainting;
    my life is given over to murderers.’