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4. Unfaithful Israel

¹ “If you, Israel, will return,
   then return to me,” declares the LORD.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
   and no longer go astray,
² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
   you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
then the nations will invoke blessings by him
   and in him they will boast.”

³ This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

   “Break up your unplowed ground
   and do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
   circumcise your hearts,
   you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
   because of the evil you have done—
   burn with no one to quench it.

Disaster From the North

    ⁵ “Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say:
   ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’
Cry aloud and say:
   ‘Gather together!
   Let us flee to the fortified cities!’
⁶ Raise the signal to go to Zion!
   Flee for safety without delay!
For I am bringing disaster from the north,
   even terrible destruction.”

    ⁷ A lion has come out of his lair;
   a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
   to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
   without inhabitant.
⁸ So put on sackcloth,
   lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
   has not turned away from us.

    ⁹ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be horrified,
   and the prophets will be appalled.”

¹⁰ Then I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats!”

¹¹ At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; ¹² a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.”

    ¹³ Look! He advances like the clouds,
   his chariots come like a whirlwind,
his horses are swifter than eagles.
   Woe to us! We are ruined!
¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved.
   How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
¹⁵ A voice is announcing from Dan,
   proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
¹⁶ “Tell this to the nations,
   proclaim concerning Jerusalem:
‘A besieging army is coming from a distant land,
   raising a war cry against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷ They surround her like men guarding a field,
   because she has rebelled against me,’” declares the LORD.
¹⁸ “Your own conduct and actions
   have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
   How bitter it is!
   How it pierces to the heart!”

    ¹⁹ 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 labor,
   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.”

The Prophet here concludes the prediction which referred to the dreadful vengeance that was coming; and he mentions here several similitudes, such as might rouse the Jews and constrain them to fear. He says, that the chariots of God would come as clouds and as a whirlwind; and then that his horses would be swifter than eagles

As to the clouds, the whirlwind, and the eagles, (for the import of the three similitudes is the same,) the Prophet no doubt intended thus to set forth the quickness of God’s vengeance; but yet there is some difference. We see how clouds suddenly arise and spread over the whole heaven; and thus it happens when a whirlwind is in the air. Hence when he compares God’s chariots to clouds and the whirlwind, it is the same as if he had said, that the beginning of the calamity would be sudden, because God would unexpectedly arise, after having been apparently asleep for a long time. But when he says, that God’s horses would be swifter than eagles, he means, that it would be easy for God, when once he had begun, to destroy the whole of Judea, as it were in a moment, or at least in a very short time; for we know how swift is the flying of the eagle; but he says, that the horses of God would be swifter than the eagles.

We now understand the Prophet’s meaning: for when the Jews derided the threatenings of the Prophets, they tauntingly used such a language as this, — “O! we shall, at least in the meantime, feast cheerfully and joyfully; these Prophets will not allow us a truce for one hour; but yet many years will pass away before the evil overtakes us.” We find profane men in our day, who in like manner trifle with God: and when they cannot wholly despise what God threatens, they yet delay the time, and think that they gain something by putting off the day of vengeance. This, then, was the reason why the Prophet said, that God’s chariots would ascend, as clouds arise suddenly, and then as a whirlwind in clear sky, and lastly, in a manner swifter than the eagles, even in their swiftest course.

The Prophet, in the last place, exclaims, in the name of the whole people, Woe to us! for we are lost ¹⁰⁹¹⁰⁹     Rather, “We have been wholly wasted,“ or desolated. The verb is in a reduplicate form, and signifies an entire waste or desolation, —
   13. Behold, like clouds will he ascend, And like a whirlwind will be his chariots, Swifter than eagles his horses: “Woe to us! for we have been wholly wasted.”
   The mixture of the tenses is intended to shew the certainty of the event. Or we may consider the last line as containing what would be said after the coming of the enemy. What they would have to say was to acknowledge their entire desolation. — Ed. He speaks here concisely, that he might shew that the false prophets, as well as the people, were going astray to their own ruin, while they were asleep in their vices, and thought their insensibility would escape punishment. He hence exclaims, that though all were then seized with stupor, the people themselves were yet lost. It at length follows —