3 See here! The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
    will take away the supply of bread and water—
    the whole supply—from Jerusalem and Judah.
² He will take away their heroes and warriors,
    judges and prophets, fortune-tellers and elders,
³ He will take away their military officers and high-ranking officials,
    advisers and skilled workers, and experts with charms and amulets.
⁴ In the chaos of their absence, I will make mere kids rule.
    Even infants will govern them,
⁵ Leaving people to take advantage of each other,
    making their lives miserable.
Youngsters will terrorize the elderly,
    and the most despicable will bully the upstanding.
⁶ Desperate people will grab anyone who seems the least bit ordinary.

People: You managed to hold on to your coat, so you must be our leader;
        this heap of rubble will be under your command!

⁷ Chosen Leader: I will not play the nurse for your wounds.
        Do not elect me to lead the people—I can barely feed and clothe my own.

⁸ O how this precious city, this Jerusalem, has gone wrong,
    and Judah is in shambles.
For all they say and do is an affront to the Eternal,
    resisting His glorious presence.
⁹ The look on their faces tells the true story;
    they flaunt their sins like Sodom.
They don’t even try to hide them—how terrible it will be for them,
    for they will pay for their self-serving carelessness.
¹⁰ Tell those who have done right in the eyes of God
    that all will be well for them,
For they will be rightly rewarded.
¹¹ But whoever persists in wrongdoing will rue the day—
    everything will go wrong for him—
Whatever he’s done will come back to him.
¹² Oh, how I ache for my people! They are oppressed by children,
    ruled by women, naïve and inexperienced.
O my people, your leaders are misleading you,
    guiding you down the path to disaster.

¹³ But now the Eternal is taking the bench; He’s ready to judge;
    He rises to lay out the people’s case.
¹⁴ The Eternal will bring charges
    against those in positions of authority over His people.

Eternal One: You are charged with devouring everything in the vineyard,
        and leaving nothing for the needy.
    You’ve ransacked the poor to fill your houses.
¹⁵     How dare you! How dare you crush My people,
        and grind the faces of the poor into the ground!

¹⁶ Eternal One: Because the daughters of Zion are so proud,
        so preoccupied with themselves—strutting and flirting,
    Skipping and dancing, winking and giggling for attention—
¹⁷     I will shame them with unsightly scabs on their heads,
        these daughters who should be the pride of Zion, God’s precious place.
    I will make them feel naked
        when I uncover their foreheads and make them bald.

²⁴ Then instead of a lovely scent—they’ll smell of decay;
    instead of leather belts—they’ll don a rope;
Instead of a cut and style—they’ll have bald heads;
    instead of silky-soft fabric—they’ll put on scratchy burlap sacks;
Instead of beauty—they’ll be branded with shame.
²⁵ Jerusalem, your fathers and sons will be slaughtered,
    your valiant protectors killed in battle,
²⁶ And your gates will cry out in grief.
    The city will sit in a heap on the ground, desolate and empty.