1   If thou wilt returne ô Israel, saith our Lord, returne to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumbling blockes from my face, thou shalt not be moued.

2   And thou shalt sweare: ^note Our Lord liueth, in truth, & in iudgement, and in iustice: and the

Gentiles shal blesse him, & shal praise him.

3   For thus saith our Lord to the man of Iuda, and to Ierusalem: Make vnto you new fallow ground, & sow not vpon thornes:

4   be circumcised to our Lord, and take away the prepuces of your hartes ye men of Iuda, and inhabitants of Ierusalem: lest perhapes mine indignation goe forth as fire, and be kindled, and there be none that can quench it: because of the malice of your cogitations.

5   Declare ye in Iuda, and make it heard in Ierusalem: speake, and sound with the trumpet in the land: crie strongly, and say: Assemble yourselues, and let vs enter into the fenced cities,

6   lift vp the signe in Sion. Take courege, stand not, because I do bring euil from the North, ad great destruction.

7   The lyon is come vp out of his denne, and the robber of the Gentiles hath lifted vp himselfe: he is come forth out of his place, that he may make thy land as a wildernes: thy cities shal be wasted, remayning without an inhabiter.

8   For this gird yourselues with clothes of heare, mourne and howle: because the wrath of the furie of our Lord is not turned away from vs.

9   And it shal be in that day, saith our Lord: The hart of the king shal perish, & the hart of the princes: and the priests shal be astonied, and the prophets shal be amased.

10   And I said: Alas, alas, alas, ô Lord God, hast thou then deceiued this people and Ierusalem, saying: You shal haue peace: and behold the sword hath come euen to the soule?

11   At that time it shal be said to this people, & to Ierusalem: A burning wind in the waies, that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fanne, and to purge.

12   A ful spirit from these shal come to me: and now I wil speake my iudgement with them.

13   Behold he shal come in a cloude, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter then eagles: woe vnto vs, because we are destroyed.

14   Wash thy hart from malice ô Ierusalem, that thou maist be saued: how long shal hurtful cogitations abide in thee?

15   For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and notifying the idol from mount Ephraim.

16   Say ye to the Gentiles: loe it is heard in Ierusalem, that there come keepers from a farre countrie, & sound their voice vpon the cities of Iuda.

17   They are set vpon her round about, as the keepers of fildes: because she hath prouoked me to wrath, saith our Lord.

18   Thy waies, and thy cogitations haue done these thinges to thee: this thy malice, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy hart.

19   My bellie, my belly

aketh, the senses of my hart are trubled in me, I wil not hold my peace, because my soule hath heard the voice of the trumpet, the crie of battel.

20   Destruction is called vpon destruction and al the earth is wasted: my tentes are wasted quickly, sodenly my skinnes.

21   How long shal I see one that fleeth away, shal I heare the voice of the trumpet?

22   Because my foolish people haue not knowen me: they are vnwise children, and without witte: they are ^note wise to do euils, but to doe wel they haue not knowen.

23   I beheld the earth, and loe it was voide, and a thing of nothing: and the heauens, & there was no light in them.

24   I saw the mountaines, & loe they were moued: & al the little hilles were trubled.

25   I beheld, and there was not a man: and euerie soule of the aire was departed.

26   I looked, and behold Carmel made desert: and al the cities therof were destroyed at the face of our Lord, and at the face of the wrath of his furie.

27   For thus saith our Lord: Al the land shal be desolate, ^notebut yet I wil not make a consummation.

28   The earth shal mourne, and the heauens shal lament from aboue: because I haue spoken, I haue purposed, and it hath not repented me, neither am I turned away from it.

29   At the voice of the horseman, and the archer, al the citie is fled: they haue entred into high places, and haue climed the rocks: al the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.

30   But thou being wasted, what wilt thou doe? when thou shalt clothe thy selfe in scarlet, when thou shalt be adorned with golden iewels, & shalt paint thine eies with stibikestone, thou shalt be trimmed in vaine: thy louers haue contemned thee, they wil seeke thy life.

31   For I haue heard the voice as of a traueling woman, anguishes as of a woman in labour of child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, amongst them that dye, and stretch forth their handes: woe is me, because my soule hath fainted for them that are slaine.

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