nd the priests shall be aghast
And the prophets dismayed!

And this is followed by one of the sudden protests to God, which are
characteristic of Jeremiah:--

10. And I said, Ah Lord God, surely Thou hast wholly deceived this
people and Jerusalem saying, "Peace shall be yours," while the
sword strikes through to the life!

2. The Second Scythian Song is like the first, prefaced by a double
address, which there is no reason to deny to Jeremiah. Jerusalem is named
twice in the song, and naturally, since the whole land is threatened with
waste and the raiders come up to the suburbs of the capital. The Prophet
speaks, but as so often the Voice of the Lord breaks through his own and
calls directly to the city and people (though the last line of verse 12
may be a later addition). On the other hand, the Prophet melts into his
people; their panic and pangs become his. This is one of the earliest
instances of Jeremiah's bearing of the sins of his people and of their
punishment.

IV. 11. At that time it was said to this people and to Jerusalem,

A wind off the blaze of the bare desert heights,
Straight on the Daughter of my people,
Neither to winnow nor to sift,
In full blast it meets me. 12
[Now will I speak My judgments upon them]
Lo, like the clouds he is mounting, 13
Like the whirlwind his cars!
Swifter than vultures his horses,
Woe, we are undone!
Jerusalem, cleanse thou thy heart,(208) 14
That thou be saved!
How long shalt thou harbour within thee
Thy guilty devices.
For hark! They signal from Dan, 15
Mount Ephraim echoes disaster.
Warn the folk, "They are come!"(209) 16
Make heard o'er Jerusalem.
Behold,(210) beleaguerers (?) coming
From a land far away;
They give out their voice on the townships of Judah;
Like the guards on her fields 17
They are round and upon her,
For Me she defied!(211)
Thy ways and thy deeds have done 18
These things to thee.
This evil of thine how bitter!
It strikes to the heart.
O my bowels! My bowels, I writhe! 19
O walls of my heart!
My heart is in storm upon me,
I cannot keep silence.(212)
For the sound of the trump thou hast heard,
O my soul,
The uproar of battle.
Ruin upon ruin is summoned, 20
The land is undone!
Suddenly undone my tents,
In a mo