Everything they say and do is against the Lord
1The Lord rules over all.
He will take away
all the important people from Jerusalem
and from the land_of_Judah.
He will take away all the food and water.
2He will take away everyone,
the soldiers, the people who know
how to go to war, the judges,
the prophets and the fortune-tellers
and all the leaders,
3the officers, the important_officials,
the advisors of the king,
the artisans and the magicians.
4I will give them officials
who are young boys,
and they will do what they want to do.
5Then the people will start
to fight with each other.
The young people will not listen
to the older people,
and unimportant people
will be rebellious and will not listen
to the important people.
6A man will take hold of his brother
in his father's house and tell him:
‘You must be our leader
because you have beautiful clothes.
You must rule over this city
that is only a heap of stones.’
7But his brother will say:
‘No, I do not want to be your leader.
I do not have food or good clothes in my house.
Don't make me the leader of these people.’
8Yes, Jerusalem
is only a heap of stones now.
The land_of_Judah has been destroyed,
because everything that the people
say and do is against the Lord.
They do not want to listen to the Lord.
9If you look at their faces,
you can see they are guilty and sinful
like the people of Sodom.
They are not ashamed of their sin.
They will suffer because
they keep on doing wrong
and God will punish them.
10And for those who are doing
what is right, tell them:
‘All will be well with you,
because you did what is good.’
11But the people who are doing
what is wrong will suffer a lot.
God will punish them
for what they have done.
The Lord will take the leaders to court
12The Lord says:
‘Your leaders are fools.
They are as weak as children and women.
The leaders who must show my people
the right way
are taking them away from Me,
and they are getting lost.’
13The Lord is the Judge,
and He will punish the people.
14The Lord brings the leaders
and officials of his people
to court at the gate and He says:
‘You have taken my people's grapes
and your homes are full of the things
that you have stolen from poor people.
15Why are you doing these bad things
to my people?
Why do you oppress the people
who can not help themselves?’
This is what the Lord, who rules over all, says.
The proud women of Jerusalem
16The Lord also said:
‘The women of Jerusalem are proud.
They think they are better than other people.
They look for men and show them
that they want to sleep with them.
17But the Lord will make their heads
full of sores
and their hair will fall out.
18On that day He will take away
all their beautiful things:
the rings around their ankles
and the jewels that look
like the sun and the moon,
19the ear-rings and bracelets and veils,
20the rings on their heads and
the chains around their ankles,
the beautiful belts around their hips,
the perfume and the jewellery
around their necks,
21rings on their fingers
and their nose-rings,
22their beautiful dresses,
the robes over their shoulders,
their handbags,
23the mirrors, long and short coats
and the turbans.
24When the Lord takes away
all their beautiful things,
the women will not smell good anymore,
and they will stink.
They will not have beautiful belts
or ropes around their hips.
They will not be able
to make their hair beautiful
because they will be bald.
They will not have beautiful clothes,
and they will put on sack-cloth.
They will not be beautiful at all.
There will be marks burnt on their bodies
to show that they are slaves.
25The men of Jerusalem,
the soldiers, will die in war.
26The city will be like a naked woman
sitting on the ground, crying and mourning.’
