Her enemies succeeded; they hold her in their power. The LORD has made her suffer for all her many sins; Her children have been captured and taken away.

"Look, O LORD, at my agony, at the anguish of my soul! My heart is broken in sorrow for my sins. There is murder in the streets; even indoors there is death.

"When your people sin against you---and there is no one who does not sin---and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away,

listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O LORD.

then I will remove my people Israel from the land that I have given them. I will also abandon this Temple which I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshiped. People everywhere will ridicule Israel and treat her with contempt.

People will answer, 'It is because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They gave their allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. That is why the LORD has brought this disaster on them.' "

It is because of your sins that he doesn't hear you. It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship him.

You go to court, but you do not have justice on your side. You depend on lies to win your case. You carry out your plans to hurt others.

(SEE 59:5)

and no one is safe when you are around. Everything you do is unjust. You follow a crooked path, and no one who walks that path will ever be safe.

and we grope about like blind people. We stumble at noon, as if it were night, as if we were in the dark world of the dead.

" LORD, our crimes against you are many. Our sins accuse us. We are well aware of them all.

They are all stubborn rebels, hard as bronze and iron. They are all corrupt, going around and spreading gossip.

"Mortal man," he said, "if a country sins and is unfaithful to me, I will reach out and destroy its supply of food. I will send a famine and kill people and animals alike.

"Or I might send wild animals to kill the people, making the land so dangerous that no one could travel through it,

"Or I might bring war on that country and send destructive weapons to wipe out people and animals alike,

"If I send an epidemic on that country and in my anger take many lives, killing people and animals,

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "I will send my four worst punishments on Jerusalem---war, famine, wild animals, and disease---to destroy people and animals alike.

"Mortal man," he said, "are you ready to judge the city that is full of murderers? Make clear to her all the disgusting things she has done.

You are guilty of those murders and are defiled by the idols you made, and so your day is coming, your time is up! That is why I have let the nations make fun of you and all the countries sneer at you.

All Israel's leaders trust in their own strength and commit murder.

You have no respect for the holy places, and you don't keep the Sabbath.

Some of them sleep with their father's wife. Some force women to have intercourse with them during their period.

Some of your people murder for pay. Some charge interest on the loans they make to other Israelites and get rich by taking advantage of them. They have forgotten me." The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

Do you think you will have any courage left or have strength enough to lift your hand when I am finished with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I keep my word.

I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah."

I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun of them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.

So now, I, the LORD, say that you have disobeyed me; you have not given all Israelites their freedom. Very well, then, I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation. I will make every nation in the world horrified at what I do to you.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "Bring a mob to terrorize them and rob them.

"Get away!" people shouted. "You're defiled! Don't touch me!" So they wandered from nation to nation, welcomed by no one.

The LORD had no more concern for them; he scattered them himself. He showed no regard for our priests and leaders.

Our leaders have been taken and hanged; our elders are shown no respect.

The old people no longer sit at the city gate, and the young people no longer make music.

Nothing is left of all we were proud of. We sinned, and now we are doomed.

I, the LORD God of Israel, promised in the past that your family and your clan would serve me as priests for all time. But now I say that I won't have it any longer! Instead, I will honor those who honor me, and I will treat with contempt those who despise me.

Laugh on, people of Edom and Uz; be glad while you can. Your disaster is coming too; you too will stagger naked in shame.

People will see you naked; they will see you humbled and shamed. I will take vengeance, and no one will stop me."

If you ask why all this has happened to you---why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped---it is because your sin is so terrible.

The LORD himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame.

Because of this I will bring all your former lovers together---the ones you liked and the ones you hated. I will bring them around you in a circle, and then I will strip off your clothes and let them see you naked.

I will put you in their power, and they will tear down the places where you engage in prostitution and worship idols. They will take away your clothes and jewels and leave you completely naked.

And because they hate you, they will take away everything you have worked for and leave you stripped naked, exposed like a prostitute. Your lust and your prostitution

If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a dry and barren land, and she will die of thirst.

I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power.

I advise you, then, to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich. Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see.

No one comes to the Temple now to worship on the holy days. The young women who sang there suffer, and the priests can only groan. The city gates stand empty, and Zion is in agony.

Her people groan as they look for something to eat; They exchange their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. "Look at me, LORD," the city cries; "see me in my misery."

"Listen to my groans; there is no one to comfort me. My enemies are glad that you brought disaster on me. Bring the day you promised; make my enemies suffer as I do.

"Condemn them for all their wickedness; Punish them as you punished me for my sins. I groan in misery, and I am sick at heart."

Jerusalem's old men sit on the ground in silence, With dust on their heads and sackcloth on their bodies. Young women bow their heads to the ground.

I heard a cry, like a woman in labor, a scream like a woman bearing her first child. It was the cry of Jerusalem gasping for breath, stretching out her hand and saying, "I am doomed! They are coming to kill me!"