3 Thus says Adonai to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to Adonai and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Else My wrath will break out like fire and blaze, with no one to quench it, because of your evil deeds!”
5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, saying: “Blow the shofar in the land!” Cry aloud and say, “Assemble yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities.”
6 “Raise a banner toward Zion! Take refuge! Do not delay! For I bring calamity from the north, even terrible destruction.
7 A lion has come up from his thicket— a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to make your land a wasteland. Your cities will lie in ruins, without inhabitant.
8 Therefore, put on sackcloth— lament and wail! For the fierce anger of Adonai has not turned away from us.”
9 “It will happen in that day” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “that the king’s heart will fail, as will the heart of the princes. The kohanim will be appalled, and the prophets will be stunned.”