4:1 If you will return, O Israel, says Yahweh, if you will return to me, and if you will put away your detestable things out of my sight; then you will not be removed;
4:2 and you will swear, As Yahweh lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him they will glory.
4:3 For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your+ fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.
4:4 Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your+ heart, you+ men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; or else my wrath will go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your+ doings.
4:5 Declare+ in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow+ the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
4:6 Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stop; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
4:7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he has gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
4:8 For this gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh has not turned back from us.
4:9 And it will come to pass at that day, says Yahweh, that the heart of the king will perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.
4:10 Then I said, Ah, Sovereign Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You+ will have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.
4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;
4:12 a full wind from these will come for me: now I will also utter judgments against them.
4:13 Look, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots [will be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.
4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge inside you?
4:15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:
4:16 make mention to the nations; Look, publish against Jerusalem [that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
4:17 As keepers of a field are those against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says Yahweh.
4:18 Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.
4:19 Inside me, inside me! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly my tents are destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.
4:21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
4:22 For my people are foolish; they don't know me. They are foolish sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil; but to do good they don't know.
4:23 I saw the earth, and, look, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
4:24 I saw the mountains, and, look, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro.
4:25 I looked and saw that man was not there, and all the birds of the heavens had fled.
4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, [and] before his fierce anger.
4:27 For thus says Yahweh, The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
4:28 For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
4:29 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they come into holes, hide in thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells in them.
4:30 And you, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you dress yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you make yourself fair; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your soul.
4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying,] Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.