⁷ “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit.

⁹ “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
    and desperately wicked.
    Who really knows how bad it is?
¹⁰ But I, the Lord, search all hearts
    and examine secret motives.
I give all people their due rewards,
    according to what their actions deserve.”

¹⁴ O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed;
    if you save me, I will be truly saved.
    My praises are for you alone!
¹⁵ People scoff at me and say,
“What is this ‘message from the Lord’ you talk about?
    Why don’t your predictions come true?”

¹⁶ Lord, I have not abandoned my job
    as a shepherd for your people.
I have not urged you to send disaster.
    You have heard everything I’ve said.
¹⁷ Lord, don’t terrorize me!
    You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.
¹⁸ Bring shame and dismay on all who persecute me,
    but don’t let me experience shame and dismay.
Bring a day of terror on them.
    Yes, bring double destruction upon them!

² “Judah wilts;
    commerce at the city gates grinds to a halt.
All the people sit on the ground in mourning,
    and a great cry rises from Jerusalem.
³ The nobles send servants to get water,
    but all the wells are dry.
The servants return with empty pitchers,
    confused and desperate,
    covering their heads in grief.
⁴ The ground is parched
    and cracked for lack of rain.
The farmers are deeply troubled;
    they, too, cover their heads.
⁵ Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn
    because there is no grass in the field.
⁶ The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills
    panting like thirsty jackals.
They strain their eyes looking for grass,
    but there is none to be found.”

⁷ The people say, “Our wickedness has caught up with us, Lord,
    but help us for the sake of your own reputation.
We have turned away from you
    and sinned against you again and again.
⁸ O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble,
    why are you like a stranger to us?
Why are you like a traveler passing through the land,
    stopping only for the night?
⁹ Are you also confused?
    Is our champion helpless to save us?
You are right here among us, Lord.
    We are known as your people.
    Please don’t abandon us now!”

¹⁰ So this is what the Lord says to his people:
“You love to wander far from me
    and do not restrain yourselves.
Therefore, I will no longer accept you as my people.
    Now I will remember all your wickedness
    and will punish you for your sins.”

“Night and day my eyes overflow with tears.
    I cannot stop weeping,
for my virgin daughter—my precious people—
    has been struck down
    and lies mortally wounded.
¹⁸ If I go out into the fields,
    I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy.
If I walk the city streets,
    I see people who have died of starvation.
The prophets and priests continue with their work,
    but they don’t know what they’re doing.”

²² Can any of the worthless foreign gods send us rain?
    Does it fall from the sky by itself?
No, you are the one, O Lord our God!
    Only you can do such things.
    So we will wait for you to help us.

¹⁸ Say to the king and his mother,
“Come down from your thrones
    and sit in the dust,
for your glorious crowns
    will soon be snatched from your heads.”
¹⁹ The towns of the Negev will close their gates,
    and no one will be able to open them.
The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.
    All will be carried into exile.

²⁰ Open up your eyes and see
    the armies marching down from the north!
Where is your flock—
    your beautiful flock—
    that he gave you to care for?
²¹ What will you say when the Lord takes the allies you have cultivated
    and appoints them as your rulers?
Pangs of anguish will grip you,
    like those of a woman in labor!
²² You may ask yourself,
“Why is all this happening to me?”
    It is because of your many sins!
That is why you have been stripped
    and raped by invading armies.
²³ Can an Ethiopian^[b] change the color of his skin?
    Can a leopard take away its spots?
Neither can you start doing good,
    for you have always done evil.

²⁴ “I will scatter you like chaff
    that is blown away by the desert winds.
²⁵ This is your allotment,
    the portion I have assigned to you,”
    says the Lord,
“for you have forgotten me,
    putting your trust in false gods.
²⁶ I myself will strip you
    and expose you to shame.
²⁷ I have seen your adultery and lust,
    and your disgusting idol worship out in the fields and on the hills.
What sorrow awaits you, Jerusalem!
    How long before you are pure?”

⁴ How long must this land mourn?
    Even the grass in the fields has withered.
The wild animals and birds have disappeared
    because of the evil in the land.
For the people have said,
    “The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”

⁷ “I have abandoned my people, my special possession.
    I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
⁸ My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest,
    so I have treated them with contempt.
⁹ My chosen people act like speckled vultures,^[a]
    but they themselves are surrounded by vultures.
    Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!

¹⁰ “Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard,
    trampling down the vines
    and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
¹¹ They have made it an empty wasteland;
    I hear its mournful cry.
The whole land is desolate,
    and no one even cares.
¹² On all the bare hilltops,
    destroying armies can be seen.
The sword of the Lord devours people
    from one end of the nation to the other.
    No one will escape!
¹³ My people have planted wheat
    but are harvesting thorns.
They have worn themselves out,
    but it has done them no good.
They will harvest a crop of shame
    because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”

“Do not act like the other nations,
    who try to read their future in the stars.
Do not be afraid of their predictions,
    even though other nations are terrified by them.
³ Their ways are futile and foolish.
    They cut down a tree, and a craftsman carves an idol.
⁴ They decorate it with gold and silver
    and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails
    so it won’t fall over.
⁵ Their gods are like
    helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field!
They cannot speak,
    and they need to be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of such gods,
    for they can neither harm you nor do you any good.”

⁶ Lord, there is no one like you!
    For you are great, and your name is full of power.
⁷ Who would not fear you, O King of nations?
    That title belongs to you alone!
Among all the wise people of the earth
    and in all the kingdoms of the world,
    there is no one like you.

⁸ People who worship idols are stupid and foolish.
    The things they worship are made of wood!
⁹ They bring beaten sheets of silver from Tarshish
    and gold from Uphaz,
and they give these materials to skillful craftsmen
    who make their idols.
Then they dress these gods in royal blue and purple robes
    made by expert tailors.
¹⁰ But the Lord is the only true God.
    He is the living God and the everlasting King!
The whole earth trembles at his anger.
    The nations cannot stand up to his wrath.

¹² But the Lord made the earth by his power,
    and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
    he stretched out the heavens.
¹³ When he speaks in the thunder,
    the heavens roar with rain.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
    He sends the lightning with the rain
    and releases the wind from his storehouses.
¹⁴ The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
    The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
    These idols have no breath or power.
¹⁵ Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!
    On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.
¹⁶ But the God of Israel^[b] is no idol!
    He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including Israel, his own special possession.
    The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

¹⁹ My wound is severe,
    and my grief is great.
My sickness is incurable,
    but I must bear it.
²⁰ My home is gone,
    and no one is left to help me rebuild it.
My children have been taken away,
    and I will never see them again.
²¹ The shepherds of my people have lost their senses.
    They no longer seek wisdom from the Lord.
Therefore, they fail completely,
    and their flocks are scattered.
²² Listen! Hear the terrifying roar of great armies
    as they roll down from the north.
The towns of Judah will be destroyed
    and become a haunt for jackals.