6 You have cast Me off” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “You keep going backward! So I stretch out My hand against you and will destroy you. I am weary with relenting.
7 I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children and destroy My people, since they do not repent of their ways.
8 Their widows will increase before Me more than the sand of the seas, I will bring a destroyer at noonday against the mother of a young man. Suddenly I will bring down on her anguish and terrors.
9 She who bore seven languishes. She breathes out her soul. Her sun sets while it is yet day. She is shamed and humiliated. Their survivors I give to the sword before their enemies.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
10 Oy to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me— a man of strife and conflict to all the land! I did not lend or borrow, yet everyone curses me.
11 Adonai said: “Surely I will release you for good. Surely I will make the enemy appeal to you in a time of trouble, in a time of affliction.
12 Can anyone smash iron— iron and bronze from the north?