Contend with your mother, contend with her,

For she is not my wife,

And I am not her husband.

And let her put her prostitution away,

And her adulteries from between her breasts,

Lest I strip her naked

And make her like the day she was born,

And I make her like a desert,

And I make her like a dry land,

And I kill her through thirst,

And I do not have compassion on her sons,

Because they are the sons of prostitution,

For their mother has committed prostitution.

She acted shamefully when she conceived them,

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

Who give me my bread and my water,

My wool and my flax,

My oil and my drink.’

Therefore I am about to hedge your way in with thorns

And put up her walling,

And she will not find her paths.

And she will pursue her lovers,

But she will not catch up with them,

And she will seek them

But will not find them,

And she will say, ‘Let me go,

And I will return to my first husband,

For it was better with me then than now.’

For she did not know that it was I

Who gave her her corn and new wine and new oil,

And who increased her silver and gold,

Which they fashioned for Baal.

That is why I will take my corn back again on its day,

And my new wine in its season,

And I will recall my wool and my flax,

Which were used to cover her nakedness.

And now I will reveal her obscenity

In the eyes of her lovers,

And no-one will be able to deliver her from my hand.

And I will put a stop to all her rejoicing,

Her celebration of feasts,

Her new moons, and her Sabbaths,

And all her festivals.

And I will lay her vines and her fig trees waste,

Of which she said,

‘They are my reward which my lovers gave me.’

And I will make them a woodland,

And the beasts of the field will devour them.

And I will visit on her the days of the Baalim,

When she burnt incense to them

And adorned herself with her earring and her necklace

And went after her lovers,

But she forgot me,

Says the Lord.

So look, I will allure her

And make her go to the desert

Where I will speak kindly to her.

And I will give her back her vineyards

When she comes from there,

And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will sing there, as in the days of her youth,

And as on the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

And it will come to pass on that day,

Says the Lord,

That you will call me, ‘My husband’,

And you will no longer call me, ‘My Baal’.

And I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth,

And they will no longer be remembered by their name.

I will make a covenant with them on that day,

With the wild animals and with the birds of the sky,

And the creeping things of the ground,

And I will break the bow and sword, and war from the land,

And I will enable them to lie down in security.

And I will betroth you to myself for an age-abiding marriage,

And I will betroth you to myself in righteousness and in judgment,

And in kindness and in compassion.

And I will betroth you to myself in faithfulness,

And you will know the Lord.

And it will come to pass on that day

That I will answer,

Says the Lord.

I will answer the heavens,

And they will answer the earth.

And the earth will answer the corn,

And the new wine and the new oil,

And they will answer Jezreel.

And I will sow her to myself in the land,

And I will have compassion on Lo-Ruhamah,

And I will say to Lo-Ammi,

Hear the word of the Lord,

You sons of Israel,

For the Lord has a quarrel

With the inhabitants of the land.

For there is no truth,

And there is no mercy,

And there is no knowledge of God in the land.

They burst out in cursing and lying

And murder and stealing and adultery,

And they strike with bloodshed upon bloodshed.

That is why the earth will mourn,

And every inhabitant of it will languish,

Among the wild animals

And among the birds of the sky.

And also the fish of the sea will perish.

But let no-one quarrel

And no-one contend,

For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

So you will stumble in the daytime,

And the prophet will stumble too with you at night,

And I will reduce your mother to silence.

My people are reduced to silence for want of knowledge,

For you have rejected knowledge,

And I have rejected you from officiating as a priest to me.

Since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I for my part will forget your sons.

As they increased,

They sinned against me.

{P: They have exchanged my honour} [M: I will exchange their honour]

For dishonour.

They eat the sin-offering of my people,

And they set their affections on iniquity.

And the people and the priest acted in the same way,

So I will visit their ways on them,

And I will requite them with their own deeds.

And they will eat,

But not be satisfied,

And they will commit prostitution

But not abound,

For they have forsaken the Lord

And the keeping of his law.

Prostitution and wine and new wine

Have taken hold of their heart.

My people inquires at its wooden idol,

And its stick answers them,

For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray,

And they commit prostitution

Under the eyes of their God.

On the tops of mountains they offer sacrifices,

And on the hills they burn incense,

Under the oak tree, the white poplar and the terebinth,

For its shade is pleasant,

Which is why your daughters commit prostitution,

And your brides commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters

When they commit prostitution,

Or your daughters-in-law

When they commit adultery,

For the men go aside with prostitutes,

And they sacrifice with the harlots.

So the people who do not understand will stumble.

Although you engage in prostitution, O Israel,

Don't let Judah become guilty.

And do not go to Gilgal,

And do not go up to Beth-Aven,

And do not swear, “The Lord lives.”

For Israel is recalcitrant like a recalcitrant heifer,

And now the Lord will put them to pasture,

Like a lamb in a wide open place.

Ephraim is joined to idols;

Leave him to it.

Their drinking bout has gone,

They have loved committing abundant prostitution;

Give them their way.

Her princes are a dishonour.

The wind has tied her up in her wings,

And they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.

Hear this, you priests,

And hearken, O house of Israel,

And give ear, O royal house,

For judgment on you is impending,

Because you were a snare to Mizpah

And a net spread out over Tabor.

The backsliders had deep designs to slaughter,

While I passed censure on all of them.

I know Ephraim,

And Israel is not hidden from me,

For now you, Ephraim have committed prostitution,

And Israel has become unclean.

They do not make their works fit for returning to their God,

For a spirit of prostitution is in their midst,

And they do not know the Lord.

And the pride of Israel will testify to its face,

And Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity,

And Judah will stumble too with them.

They will go and seek the Lord among their sheep and their cattle,

But they will not find him.

He will have withdrawn from them.

They have dealt treacherously with the Lord,

For they have borne sons who are strangers,

And now they will be devoured in a month along with their apportioned regions.

Blow the ramshorn in Gibeah

And the trumpet in Ramah.

Sound the alarm in Beth-Aven.

Look behind you, Benjamin.

Ephraim will become a desolation on the day of rebuke.

Among the tribes of Israel,

I have made it known faithfully.

The princes of Judah were like those who moved the boundary.

I will pour out my anger on them like water.

Ephraim is oppressed,

Justice has been perverted,

For he willingly followed the commandment.

So I will be like the moth to Ephraim

And like rot to the house of Judah.

When Ephraim saw his sickness

And Judah saw his wound,

Ephraim went to Assyria

And sent envoys to King Jareb.

But he was not able to cure you,

And he did not heal your wound.

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

And as a young lion to the house of Judah.

I myself will tear to pieces

And go, and carry off,

And there will be no-one to deliver him.

I will go and return to my place

Until they acknowledge their guilt

And seek my face.

When they are in straits,

They will diligently seek me.

“Come, let us return to the Lord,

For he tore apart,

But he will heal us.

He struck,

But he will bind us up.

He will make us alive after two days;

On the third day he will raise us up,

And we will live in his presence.

And we will know, saying,

‘Let us follow so as to know the Lord.

His rising is like the steady dawn,

And he will come like rain on us,

Like the late and early rain on the land.’ ”

What shall I do to you, Ephraim?

What shall I do to you, Judah?

For the compassion you show

Is just as a cloud in the morning,

And like the early dew,

Which goes away.

That is why I have hewn into the prophets;

I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

And my judgments on you go forth like light.

For I desired mercy

And not sacrifice,

And knowledge of God

Rather than burnt offerings.

But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant;

There, they dealt treacherously with me.

Gilead is a town of workers of iniquity

– A town stained with blood.

And as gangs wait for a man,

So is a company of priests.

On the road to Shechem they commit murder,

For they perpetrate wickedness.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.

In that place there is the prostitution of Ephraim.

Israel is defiled.

For you also, Judah,

He has appointed a reaping time,

When I reverse the captivity of my people.

When I heal Israel,

The iniquity of Ephraim will be revealed,

As will the evil deeds of Samaria.

For they have acted falsely,

And the thief comes in,

And a gang commits robbery in the open.

And they don't consider

That I have remembered all their wrongdoing.

Their deeds surround them now;

They are before me.

With their evil deeds they pleased the king,

And with their falsehood, princes.

They are all adulterers,

Like a baker's burning oven.

Will he stop stoking it,

Or kneading the dough before it is leavened?

On the festival day of our king,

The princes made him weak with the intoxication of wine.

He stretched out his hand with the scoffers.

For in their plotting they bring their hearts near to an oven.

All night their baker sleeps,

But in the morning, it burns like a blazing fire.

They are all as hot as a furnace,

And they have devoured their judges.

All their kings have fallen;

There is no-one among them who calls to me.

Ephraim is mixing with the Gentiles;

Ephraim is like a cake which wasn't turned over.

Strangers have devoured his strength,

And he does not realize it.

Also grey hair is strewn over him,

But he is not aware of it.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,

Yet they do not return to the Lord their God,

And for all this they do not seek him.

And Ephraim has become like an unsuspecting dove,

Without mettle.

They call out to Egypt;

They go to Assyria.

As they go,

I will spread my net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will chasten them according to the report of their congregation.

Woe to them,

For they have wandered away from me.

Devastation be upon them,

For they have transgressed against me.

Although I redeemed them,

They nevertheless speak lies about me.

And they did not call out to me in their heart,

For they howled on their couches,

Where they congregate for their food and wine.

They have departed from me.

And I chastened them,

And I strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise wickedness against me.

They return,

But not to the Most High.

They are like an untrustworthy bow.

Their princes fall by the sword

Because of the insolence of their tongue.

This is the cause of them suffering derision in the land of Egypt.

Put the ramshorn to your mouth;

War is coming like an eagle against the house of the Lord,

Because they have transgressed my covenant

And violated my law.

To me they will cry,

“We – Israel – know you,

O God of mine.”

Israel has cast off that which is good;

The enemy will pursue him.

They have appointed kings,

But not from me;

They have appointed princes,

But I did not acknowledge it.

With their silver and their gold

They have made themselves idols,

Which is why they will be cut off.

He has rejected your calf, Samaria.

My anger is kindled against them.

How long will they fail to attain to innocence?

For the artificer who made it was from Israel

– A man, who is not God.

For Samaria's calf will become splinters.

For they have sown wind,

But they will reap a hurricane.

It has no standing corn;

It is a shoot without yielding anything

By which one can make flour.

If perchance it does yield anything,

Strangers will swallow it up.

Israel is swallowed up.

Now they are among the Gentiles,

Like an item in which there is no pleasure.

For they went to Assyria,

Like a wild donkey on its own.

And Ephraim hired lovers.

Even though they have hired lovers among the Gentiles,

Now I will gather them,

But they will profane themselves for a while,

Under the burden of the king of princes.

For Ephraim has increased the number of altars

With which to sin.

They have become altars

For him to sin.

I have written down for him

{Q: The great things} [K: The greatness] in my law,

But they were considered

Something strange.

They offer the sacrifices which are gifts to me,

And they eat the flesh,

But the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity,

And he will visit their sins.

They will return to Egypt.

And Israel has forgotten its maker

And has built temples,

And Judah has increased its fortified cities.

So I shall send fire into its cities,

Which will devour her palaces.

Do not be pleased, Israel,

With rejoicing as the Gentiles do,

For you have committed prostitution against your God.

You have loved the wages of prostitution

On every floor for threshing corn.

The threshing floor and the wine vat will not feed them,

And the new wine in the land will fail.

They will not dwell in the Lord's land,

And Ephraim will return to Egypt,

And he will eat unclean food in Assyria.

They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord,

And they will not be pleasing to him.

Their sacrifices will be like mourners' food to them;

All who eat it will be defiled.

For their bread for their life

Will not come into the house of the Lord.

What will you do on the festival day,

And on a day of the feast of the Lord?

For look, they have departed on account of the devastation.

Egypt will gather them,

And Memphis will bury them.

As for their delightful silver items,

Nettles will inherit them,

As will thorn bushes in their tents.

The days of visitation are coming,

The days of retribution are coming,

And Israel will know it.

The prophet is a fool;

The spiritual man is mad,

Because of the abundance of your iniquity

And the great enmity.

Ephraim was a watchman with my God.

As for the prophet,

The fowler's trap is set on all his ways.

There is enmity in the house of his God.

They have deeply corrupted their ways,

As in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity;

He will visit their sins.

I found Israel like bunches of grapes in the desert;

I saw your fathers like early fruit on the fig tree in its early days.

But they went to Baal-Peor;

They consecrated themselves to a shameful thing

And became abominations with their acts of love.

Ephraim is like a bird;

Their glory has flown away.

They are deprived of birth,

Of pregnancy, and of conception.

Although they bring up their sons,

I will bereave them,

Depriving them of a man.

For woe indeed to them

When I depart from them.

Ephraim, as what I have seen in Tyre,

Was planted in a pasture.

But Ephraim is on the point of bringing its sons to the slayer.

O Lord, give them ...

– What will you give them?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dried up breasts.

All the wickedness was in Gilgal,

For there I hated them,

Because of the wickedness of their deeds.

I will drive them out of my house,

I will no longer love them;

All their princes are refractory.

Ephraim has been struck,

Their root is dried up,

And they do not produce fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill the delights of their womb.

My God has rejected them,

For they have not heard him,

And they have become wanderers among the Gentiles.

Israel is a luxuriant vine;

It yields its fruit.

But in proportion to the abundance of its fruit,

It has increased its altars.

In proportion to the goodness of its land,

They have been good at erecting idolatrous statues.

Their heart is divided;

Now they will bear their guilt.

He will break the necks of their altars;

He will devastate their idolatrous statues.

For they will now say,

“We have no king,

For we have not feared the Lord”,

And, “What would a king do for us?”

They have spoken words,

Swearing falsely,

Making a covenant,

So that judgment flourishes like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

The inhabitants of Samaria will fear for the calves of Beth-Aven,

For its people shall mourn for it,

As will the idolatrous priests who rejoiced over it

– Over its glory,

Which has departed from it.

This too will be carried to Assyria,

As a present for King Jareb.

Ephraim will receive shame,

And Israel will be ashamed because of his counsel.

Samaria with her king is reduced to silence,

Like foam on the surface of the sea.

And the idolatrous raised sites of Aven will be destroyed.

They are Israel's sin.

Thorns and brambles will come up on their altars.

And they will say to the mountains,

“Cover us”,

And to the hills,

“Fall on us.”

From the days of Gibeah

You have sinned, O Israel.

There they took a stand.

Did not battle befall them in Gibeah

Because of the wicked men?

In my longing I would chastise them

When nations were gathered against them,

When they {K: joined battle at their two fountains} [Q: were bound for their two iniquities].

But Ephraim is a trained calf,

Which likes to tread corn,

And I passed over the beauty of her neck.

I will cause Ephraim to be ridden,

And Judah will plough,

And Jacob will harrow for him.

Sow righteousness for yourselves,

Reap in proportion to your mercy,

And break up fallow land for yourselves,

For it is time to be seeking the Lord

Until he comes

And rains righteousness on you.

You have ploughed injustice,

You have reaped iniquity,

You have eaten the fruit of falsehood,

For you put trust in your own way

– In the greatness of your warriors.

And a tumult will arise among your people,

And all your fortified cities will be plundered,

As when Shalman plundered Beth-Arbel on the day of battle,

When a mother was dashed to pieces with her sons.

So shall Beth-El do to you,

Because of your great wickedness;

At dawn, the king of Israel will be utterly reduced to silence.

When Israel was a child,

I loved him,

And I called my son from Egypt.

As they called them,

So they departed from their presence.

They sacrificed to the Baalim,

And they burnt incense to carved images.

And I taught Ephraim to walk,

Taking them by their arms,

But they did not know that I had healed them.

I drew them with human cords,

With strings of love,

And I was to them like those who lift off the yoke on their jaws.

And I stretched my hand out to them

And fed them.

He shall not return to the land of Egypt,

Or go to Assyria, which was his king

When they refused to repent.

And the sword was wielded in his cities,

And it wasted his officials,

And it devoured them,

Because of their counsels.

But my people are bent on backsliding from me.

Although they call upon him

– To the Most High –

They collectively do not exalt him.

How could I give you up, Ephraim,

Or deliver you up, Israel?

How could I give you up, like Admah,

Or make you like Zeboim?

My heart has turned within me;

My consolations are altogether kindled.

I will not execute the fury of my anger;

I will not ruin Ephraim again,

For I am God, and not man

– The holy one in your midst –

And I will not come in anger.

They shall walk after the Lord;

He shall roar like a lion.

When he roars,

Sons of men tremble more than they do from a roaring sea.

They will tremble like a bird from Egypt

Or a dove from the land of Assyria.

Then I will settle them in their houses,

Says the Lord.

Ephraim has surrounded me with falsehood,

And the house of Israel with deceit,

But Judah still walks with God,

And is faithful with the holy ones.

Ephraim is feeding on wind

And is pursuing the eastern blast.

All day long he does more fraud and plundering,

And they have made a covenant with Assyria,

And oil is brought to Egypt.

And the Lord has a quarrel with Judah,

And a reason to visit Jacob according to his ways.

He will recompense him according to his works.

In the womb he supplanted his brother,

And in his strength he wrestled with God.

And he contended with the angel,

And he prevailed.

He wept and entreated him.

In Beth-El he found him,

And there he spoke with us.

And the Lord is the God of hosts;

The Lord is his memorial name.

And you will return to your God.

Keep mercy and judgment,

And wait for your God, always.

He is a merchant.

In his hand are false balances;

He loves to defraud.

And Ephraim said,

“Surely I have become rich;

I have found wealth for myself.

In all my labours they will not find in me any wrongdoing,

Which would be sin.”

But I am the Lord your God

From the land of Egypt.

I will yet have you dwell in tents,

As on the days of the festival.

And I have spoken through the prophets,

And I have increased the number of visions,

And I have given metaphors through the intermediacy of the prophets.

Is Gilead vanity?

Surely they are falsehood.

They sacrifice oxen in Gilgal,

And their altars are like heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

And Jacob fled to the country of Aramaea,

And Israel served there for a wife,

And for a wife he kept sheep.

And by a prophet

The Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt,

And by a prophet

He was guarded.

Ephraim provoked the Lord bitterly,

And he will leave his acts of bloodshed on him,

And his Lord will requite him his reproach.

When Ephraim spoke of trembling,

He carried weight in Israel,

But he became guilty with Baal

And died.

And now they are sinning more,

And they have made a cast image for themselves from their silver

According to their understanding

– Idols, all of it the work of artificers.

To them they say,

“Let those who sacrifice men kiss the calves.”

Therefore they shall be like the cloud in the morning,

And like the early dew which evaporates;

Like chaff blown away from the threshing floor,

And like smoke from a chimney.

But I am the Lord your God,

From the land of Egypt.

And you will know no gods besides me,

And that there is no saviour except me.

I knew you in the desert,

In the land of drought.

Such was their pasture,

That they were satisfied.

They were satisfied,

And their heart was lifted.

That is why they forgot me.

And I was to them like a lion,

I watched like a leopard by the wayside;

I came against them like a bear bereaved of cubs,

And I will tear the enclosure of their heart,

And I will devour them there like a lion;

A wild animal will tear them in pieces.

It has ruined you, Israel,

For you are against me

– Against your helper.

I will be your king.

Where is he who can save you in all your cities,

And your rulers regarding whom you said,

“Give me a king and princes”?

I gave you a king in my anger,

And I took one away in my wrath.

The iniquity of Ephraim is stowed away;

His sin is hidden away.

The birth pangs of one bearing a child will come upon him.

He is not a wise son,

For time will not stand still

When it comes to the sons breaking out of the womb.

I will deliver them from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

Repentance will be hidden from my eyes.

For he will be fruitful among his brothers,

But then an east wind will come

– An almighty wind will come up from the desert.

And his fount will become dry,

And his spring will dry up.

He shall plunder the treasury of every precious object.

Samaria will bear her guilt,

For she has rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword.

Their children will be torn apart,

And his pregnant women will be ripped open.

Return Israel, to the Lord your God,

For you have stumbled in your iniquity.

Take with you words,

And return to the Lord,

And say to him,

“Take away all our iniquity,

Receive us favourably,

And we will repay with the calves of our lips.

Assyria will not save us;

Let us not ride on horses,

And let us no longer say, ‘Our gods’ to the work of our hands.

Let it be that through you

The orphan receives compassion.”

“I will heal their apostasy,

I will love them freely,

For my anger will have turned from him.

I will be like dew to Israel,

And he will flourish like a lily,

And he will strike root

As trees do in Lebanon.

His shoots will spread,

And his splendour will be like an olive tree,

And he will have a scent

As aromatic trees do in Lebanon.

And they who dwell in his shadow will return,

And they will revive like corn

And flourish like the vine.

Their memorial will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim will say,

‘What have I to do with idols any more?’

And I will answer and regard him.

I will be like a green cypress;

And from me your fruit will be found.

Let him who is wise understand these things,

And let him who is intelligent know them,

For the ways of the Lord are upright,

And the righteous will walk in them,

But the transgressors will stumble in them.”

Listen to this, you elders,

And give ear, all you dwellers of the land.

Was there ever anything like this in your days,

Or in the days of your fathers?

Tell your sons about it,

And have your sons tell their sons,

And have their sons tell another generation.

What was left by the gnawing locust,

The swarming locust has eaten.

What was left by the swarming locust,

The devouring locust has eaten.

And what was left by the devouring locust,

The consuming locust has eaten.

Wake up, drunkards, and weep;

And all drinkers of wine,

Wail over the new wine,

For it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has gone up onto my land

– A powerful and innumerable one.

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the incisors of a great lion.

It has made my vine a desolation

And my fig tree splinters.

It has stripped it bare

And cast it away;

Its branches have turned white.

Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth

For the husband of her youth.

The meal-offering and the libation

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests – the Lord's servants – are in mourning.

The countryside is wasted,

The ground mourns,

For the corn is wasted.

The new wine has dried up;

The new oil is languishing.

The farmers have been put to shame.

The vinedressers are howling,

Also for the wheat and for the barley,

Because the harvest of the field has failed.

The vine has dried up,

The fig tree is languishing

– The pomegranate and the date and the apple too.

All the trees of the field have dried up,

For joy has dried up from the sons of Adam.

Gird yourselves and mourn, you priests,

Howl, you servants of the altar.

Come and pass the night in sackcloth,

You servants of my God,

For the meal-offering and the libation have been withheld from the house of your God.

Hold a holy fast;

Proclaim a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

And it will come as devastation from the Almighty.

Is not food cut off in front of our eyes?

Are not happiness and rejoicing cut off from the house of our God?

The seeds decay under their covering soil,

The storehouses have been laid waste,

The garners have been demolished,

For the corn supply has dried up.

How the cattle sigh,

How the herds of oxen are perplexed,

For there is no pasture for them,

And the flocks of sheep are perishing.

On you, O Lord, I will call,

For fire has devoured the pastures of the desert,

And a flame has set all the trees of the field ablaze.

The beasts of the field also bleat to you,

For the brooks of water have dried up,

And fire has devoured the pastures of the desert.

Blow the ramshorn in Zion,

And sound the alarm on my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

For the day of the Lord is coming,

For it is near.

It is a day of darkness and dimness,

A day of cloud and gloom,

Like blackness spreading over the mountains,

Consisting of a numerous and strong people.

There has not been anything like it from ancient time,

Nor will there again be after it,

In the years of generation after generation.

Fire will consume in front of them,

And behind them a flame will spread a conflagration.

The land in front of them is like the garden of Eden,

But behind them is a desolate desert,

And they will not have anyone who escapes it.

Their appearance is as the appearance of horses,

And they run like horsemen.

They rattle along over the tops of hills

With the noise of chariots

And with a sound like a flame devouring stubble.

They are a powerful people,

Equipped for war.

In their presence nations will writhe;

All faces will lose their shine.

Like warriors they run;

Like men of war, they climb a wall.

And each one marches in his file,

And they do not break ranks.

And no-one jostles his neighbour;

Each man walks on his path.

And when they fall, hit by a missile,

They do not break up the formation.

In the city, they scurry to and fro,

And they run on the wall.

They climb into houses;

They come through windows like a thief.

In front of them the earth will tremble,

And the heavens will shake.

The sun and moon will be darkened,

And the stars will withdraw their brightness.

And the Lord will sound his voice before his army

(For his camp is very mighty),

And he who gives his word is powerful.

For great is the day of the Lord,

And quite terrible,

And who can endure it?

And even now,

Says the Lord,

Return to me with your whole heart,

And with fasting and with weeping

And with mourning.

And tear your heart,

And not your clothes,

And return to the Lord your God,

For he is gracious and merciful,

Longsuffering and of great kindness,

Who repents of doing harm.

Who knows if they will return and repent,

And leave a gift behind

– A meal-offering and a libation

To the Lord your God?

Sound the ramshorn in Zion,

Hold a holy fast;

Proclaim a solemn assembly.

Gather the people,

Proclaim a holy convocation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children,

And those who are breastfed.

Let the bridegroom go out of his room,

And the bride go out of her bridal chamber.

Between the portico and the altar,

Let the priests – the servants of the Lord – weep,

And let them say,

“Take pity, O Lord on your people,

And do not allow your inheritance to become a reproach,

By which the Gentiles would have a proverb against them.

Why should those among the Gentiles say,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

And the Lord will be zealous for his land,

And he will spare his people.

And the Lord will answer

And will say to his people,

“Look, I am sending you corn and new wine and new oil,

And you will be satisfied with it,

And I will no longer make you a reproach among the Gentiles.

And I will remove the northerner from you,

And I will drive him out into a dry and desolate land,

With his face towards the eastern sea,

And his rear towards the western sea,

And his stench will go up,

And his foul smell will rise,

For he acted presumptuously in what he did.

Do not fear, O land;

Rejoice and be happy,

For the Lord has presumed to act.

Do not fear, you wild animals,

For the pastures of the desert will sprout grass,

For the tree will bear its fruit;

The fig tree and the vine will yield their richness.

So, you sons of Zion,

Be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God,

For he has given you the teacher of righteousness,

And he has brought down rain upon you,

Early rain and late rain, as aforetime.

And the threshing floors will be full of grain,

And the vats will overflow with new wine and new oil.

And I will restore to you the years

Which the swarming locust devoured,

And the devouring locust, and the consuming locust and the gnawing locust

– My great army which I sent against you.

And you will eat freely and be satisfied,

And you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

Who dealt wondrously with you,

And my people will never be ashamed.

And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,

And that I am the Lord your God,

And that there is no other.

And my people will never be ashamed.”

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,

As the Lord has said,

And for the remnants whom the Lord calls.

For look,

In those days and at that time,

When I reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

I will gather all the Gentiles,

And I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

And I will litigate with them there,

Concerning my people and my inheritance Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations,

And as to why they have divided up my land.

For they have cast lots for my people,

And they have given boys for prostitutes,

And they have sold girls for wine

And have drunk it.

And also, what have you to do with me,

Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia?

Will you repay me with retribution?

Well if you retribute me,

I will swiftly and rapidly return your retribution onto your head.

For you have taken my silver and my gold,

And you have brought my fine precious objects into your temples.

And you have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,

So removing them from their territory.

Look, I am stirring them up

To move them from the place where you sold them,

And I will bring back your recompense onto your head.

And I will sell your sons and your daughters

Into the hand of the sons of Judah,

Who will sell them to the Sabaeans

– To a distant nation –

For the Lord has spoken.

Announce this among the nations,

Proclaim a holy war,

Arouse the warriors,

Let all men of war approach

And go up.

Beat your ploughshares into swords

And your pruning shears into spears.

Let him who is weak say,

‘I am a warrior.’

Make haste and come,

All you nations round about,

And be gathered there.

O Lord,

Bring down your warriors.

Let the nations be aroused

And go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

For there I will sit to judge all the nations round about.

Come and tread,

For the wine press is full.

The wine vats are overflowing,

For great is their wickedness.

There are multitudes, multitudes,

In the Valley of Decision,

For the day of the Lord is near,

In the Valley of Decision.

And the stars will withdraw their brightness.

And the Lord will roar from Zion;

He will sound his voice from Jerusalem,

And heaven and earth will tremble.

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,

And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.

And you will know that I am the Lord your God,

Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.

And Jerusalem will be holy,

And strangers will no longer pass through her.

And it will come to pass on that day

That the mountains will distil new wine,

And the hills will run with milk,

And all the brooks of Judah will run with water,

And a spring will come out at the house of the Lord,

And it will feed the stream of Shittim.

Egypt will become a desolation,

And Edom will become a desolate desert,

Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,

In that they shed innocent blood in their land.

But Judah will remain age-abidingly,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation,

And I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed,

And the Lord will dwell in Zion.”

And he said,

“The Lord will roar from Zion,

And he will sound his voice from Jerusalem,

And the pastures of the shepherds will mourn,

And the summit of Carmel will dry up.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Damascus,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because of their threshing of Gilead

With iron threshing sledges.

So I will send fire on the house of Hazael,

Which will consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

And I will break the gate-bar of Damascus,

And I will cut off the inhabitant from the lowland of Aven,

And him who wields the sceptre of Beth-Eden.

And the people of Aramaea will go into captivity in Kir,

Says the Lord.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Gaza,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because of their act of taking a people entirely captive,

To deliver them to Edom.

And I will send fire onto the wall of Gaza,

Which will consume her palaces.

And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,

And him who wields the sceptre from Ashkelon.

And I will turn my hand against Ekron,

And the remnants of the Philistines will perish,

Says the Lord, the Lord.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Tyre,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because they delivered them up with a complete captivity to Edom,

And they did not remember the brotherly covenant.

And I will send fire onto the wall of Tyre,

Which will consume her palaces.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Edom,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because they pursued their brother with the sword,

And forswore compassion,

And their anger was perpetually tearing them to pieces,

And they retained their wrath unremittingly.

And I will send fire on Teman,

Which will consume the palaces of Bozrah.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because of them ripping open the pregnant women of Gilead

In order to widen their territory.

And I will light a fire on the wall of Rabbah,

Which will consume her palaces,

With an alarm sound on the day of war,

With a storm on the day of the whirlwind.

And their king will go into captivity,

He together with his princes,

Says the Lord.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Moab,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom to lime.

And I will send fire to Moab,

Which will consume the palaces of Kerioth,

And Moab will die in a tumult,

In an alarm sound

– At the sound of the ramshorn.

And I will cut off the judge from their midst,

And I will kill all their princes with him,

Says the Lord.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Judah,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because of them rejecting the law of the Lord,

When they did not keep his statutes,

And their lies led them astray

– Lies which their fathers walked in.

And I will send fire to Judah,

Which will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.”

This is what the Lord says:

“For three transgressions of Israel,

And for four,

I will not avert it,

Because they sold the righteous for silver,

And the poor in return for a pair of sandals.

They crush the head of the poor in the dust of the earth,

And they pervert the way of the meek,

And a man and his father go to a girl

To profane my holy name.

And they recline in clothes taken in pledge,

Next to every altar,

And they drink confiscated wine

In the house of their God.

Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,

Whose height was as the height of cedars,

And who was as strong as oak trees.

And I destroyed his fruit above,

And his roots below the ground.

And I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,

And I led you in the desert for forty years,

To inherit the land of the Amorite.

And I raised up some of your sons to be prophets,

And some of your youths to be Nazarites.

Is this not so,

O sons of Israel?

Says the Lord,

But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink,

And you commanded the prophets, saying,

‘Do not prophesy.’

Look, I am burdened by you,

As a cart full of sheaves is burdened.

So refuge will be unavailable to the swift,

And the strong will not be able to build up his force,

And the warrior will not be able to save his life.

And the archer will not stand,

And he who is swift on his feet will not escape,

And he who rides on a horse will not save his life.

And he who is courageous among warriors

Will flee naked on that day,

Says the Lord.”

“Only you have I known,

Of all the families of the earth,

Which is why I will visit on you

All your iniquities.

Can two walk together,

Unless they have met by appointment?

Does the lion roar in the forest

When it has no prey?

Does the young lion sound its voice from its den

If it has not caught anything?

Does a bird fall into a snare on the ground

When there is no bait set for it?

Does the snare snap up from the ground

When it has trapped nothing at all?

Is the ramshorn ever sounded in the city

Without the people fearing?

Is there ever calamity in the city

Which the Lord did not cause?

For the Lord, the Lord, does not do anything,

Except after he has revealed his secret

To his servants, the prophets.

When the lion roars,

Who will not fear?

And when the Lord, the Lord, speaks,

Who will not prophesy?

Proclaim it to the palaces in Ashdod,

And to the palaces in the land of Egypt,

And say,

‘Be gathered on the mountains of Samaria,

And see the great consternation within it,

And the oppressed in its midst.’

For they do not know how to do what is right,

Says the Lord

– Those who treasure up violence and spoil in their palaces.

Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord, says:

‘There will be an adversary,

And he will be around the land,

And he will sap your strength from you,

And your palaces will be plundered.’

This is what the Lord says:

‘As the shepherd saves two legs or a piece of an ear

From the mouth of the lion,

So the sons of Israel will be saved

– Those dwelling in Samaria,

In the corner of a bed

Or on a damask couch.

Hear and testify in the house of Jacob,

Says the Lord, the Lord God of hosts.

For on the day when I visit the transgressions of Israel on them,

I will also visit the altars of Beth-El,

And the horns of the altars will be cut off,

And they will fall to the ground.

And I will strike the winter house against the summer house,

And the ivory houses will cease to exist,

And many other houses will come to an end,

Says the Lord.

Hear this word, you heifers of Bashan,

Who are in the mountain of Samaria,

Who oppress the poor,

Who crush the needy,

Who say to their lords,

«Bring wine,

And let us drink.»

The Lord, the Lord, has sworn by his holiness,

For look, the days are coming on you,

When he will take you away by hooks,

And your posterity by fishing tackle.

And you will go out in waves, one opposite another,

And you will throw the hooks at the palace,

Says the Lord.

Go to Beth-El and transgress,

And to Gilgal and transgress more.

And bring your sacrifices in the morning,

And within three days bring your tithes.

And burn your thank-offering with leavened bread,

And call for the freewill-offerings.

Proclaim them,

For that is what you love,

You sons of Israel,

Says the Lord, the Lord.

Now I myself have given you clean teeth in all your cities,

And shortage of bread in all your places,

Yet you have not returned to me,

Says the Lord.

And I have also withheld rain from you,

With three months to go before the harvest,

And I brought rain to one city,

But I did not bring rain to another city.

One parcel of land was rained on,

But the parcel of land where I brought no rain

Dried up.

So the inhabitants of two or three cities had to travel to one city and back

To drink water,

And they were not satiated,

Yet you did not return to me,

Says the Lord.

And I struck you with much blight and mildew

In your gardens and vineyards,

And the gnawing locust ate your fig trees and olive trees,

Yet you did not return to me,

Says the Lord.

I sent a plague to you,

Egyptian style.

I killed your youths with the sword,

With capture of your horses,

And I caused the stench of your camps to go up into your nostrils,

Yet you did not return to me,

Says the Lord.

I have caused overthrowings among you,

Like the overthrow of God of Sodom and Gomorrah,

And you became like a firebrand rescued from the fire,

Yet you did not return to me,

Says the Lord.

So I will deal with you this way,

O Israel.

Now because this is what I will do to you,

Prepare to meet your God,

O Israel.

For look, he who forms the mountains,

And creates the wind,

And tells man what his purpose is,

Makes dawn darkness,

And treads on the idolatrous raised sites of the land

– The Lord God of hosts is his name.

The virgin of Israel has fallen;

She cannot get up again.

She has been left on the ground;

There is no-one to lift her up.’

For this is what the Lord, the Lord, says:

‘The city that goes out with a thousand

Will be left with a hundred,

And the city that goes out with a hundred

Will be left with ten

Remaining to the house of Israel.’

For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:

‘Seek me and live.

But do not seek Beth-El,

And do not go to Gilgal,

And do not cross to Beersheba,

For Gilgal will certainly go into exile,

And Beth-El will be annihilated.

Seek the Lord and live

Lest he advances like a fire over the house of Joseph,

And it consumes it,

And there is no-one to extinguish it in Beth-El,

You who turn judgment to wormwood,

And who lay righteousness down on the ground.

He who makes the Pleiades and Orion,

And turns the shadow of death into morning,

And darkens day into night,

Who calls the water of the sea

And pours it onto the face of the earth

– The Lord is his name –

Who brings sudden destruction on the strong,

And destruction which will come upon the fortification.

They have hated him who rebuked at the gate,

And they have loathed him who speaks that which is upright.

Therefore, because you have trampled on the poor

And taken a cart-load of grain from him,

Although you have built houses of hewn stone,

You will not live in them,

And although you have planted attractive vineyards,

You will not drink their wine.

For I know that your transgressions are many,

And that your sins are enormous.

They are oppressors of the righteous,

And takers of bribes,

And they pervert the justice of the poor at the gate.

Therefore let him who is prudent

Be silent at that time,

For it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil,

In order that you may live,

And it will be the case

That the Lord God of hosts will be with you,

As you have said.

Hate evil and love good,

And install justice at the gate;

Maybe the Lord God of hosts will be merciful

To the remnant of Joseph.’

Therefore this is what the Lord God of hosts

– The Lord^* – says:

‘There will be mourning in all streets,

And in all open places they will say,

«Woe, Woe»,

And they will call the farmer to lamentation,

And those who know wailing, to mourning.

And there will be mourning in all the vineyards,

For I will pass through your precincts,

Says the Lord.

Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord.

What is it to you?

The day of the Lord is darkness

And not light.

It is like a man fleeing from the lion,

When a bear meets him,

Or when he comes home,

When he rests his arm on a wall,

A serpent bites him.

Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light?

And is it not gloomy

With no brightness in it?

I hate, I reject your feasts,

And I do not fragrantly smell your solemn assemblies.

Although you offer burnt offerings and your meal-offerings to me,

I will not receive them,

And I will not take pleasure in the peace-offering of your fatted calves.

Remove from me the noise of your songs,

For I will not hear the music of your lutes.

Let judgment roll on like water,

And righteousness like a constant stream.

So I will deport you to beyond Damascus,

Says the Lord

– The God of hosts is his name.

Woe to those at ease in Zion,

And those who trust in the mountain of Samaria

– Those who are designated the foremost of the nations –

To whom the house of Israel came.

Cross to Calneh and look,

And go from there to Greater Hamath,

And go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are they better than these kingdoms,

And is their border greater than your border?

– You who push back the evil day,

But bring forward the seat of violence,

You who lie on ivory beds

And stretch out on their couches

And eat the fatted lambs of the flock and calves from the stall,

Who chant to the sound of the lute,

Who like David invent for themselves musical instruments,

Who drink from sacrificial wine dishes

And anoint themselves with prime oils,

And who are not grieved by the break-up of Joseph.

That is why they will now go into captivity,

At the head of the body of captives.

And the merrymaking of those reclining will be gone.’

The Lord, the Lord, has sworn by himself,

Says the Lord God of hosts,

‘I abhor the pride of Jacob,

And I hate his palaces,

So I will deliver up the city and its fulness.’

For look, the Lord commands

And strikes a large house into fragments,

And a small house into split stone.

Do horses run on a rock,

Or does anyone plough it with oxen?

For you have turned justice into hemlock,

And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.

You rejoice in a thing of no substance,

Saying, ‘Did we not acquire our prestigious position through our own strength?’

For look, I am about to raise a nation up against you,

O house of Israel,

Says the Lord God of hosts,

And they will oppress you,

So that you cannot go to Hamath

Or anywhere up to the brook of the arid tract.”

“I am about to place a plumbline

In the midst of my people Israel.

I will not forgive them any more.

And the high places of Isaac will become desolate,

And the sanctuaries of Israel will be devastated.

And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,

And Israel will certainly go into captivity,

Away from its land.’ ”

«Do not prophesy against Israel,

And do not distil prognostications against the house of Isaac.»

«Your wife will commit whoredom in the city,

And your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,

And your land will be divided up with the measuring line,

And you will die on unclean land,

And Israel will certainly go into captivity

Away from its land.» ’ ”

“The end has come to my people Israel;

I will not forgive them any more.

And the songs of the temple will be howlings on that day,

Says the Lord, the Lord.

Corpses will be numerous everywhere.

Men will say, ‘He has cast it off.

Keep silence.’

Hear this, you who swallow up the needy

And in so doing, put a stop

To the livelihood of the {Q: poor} [K: meek] of the land,

Saying, ‘When will the new moon be over,

So we can sell corn?

And the Sabbath,

So we can open the grain stores,

Selling a short ephah,

And in so doing, make more shekels,

And swindle with false balances;

So we can buy the poverty-stricken for silver,

And the needy for a pair of sandals’,

And saying, ‘Let us sell the refuse of the grain.’

The Lord has sworn by the excellency of Jacob,

‘I will certainly never forget any of their works.’

Will the land not tremble for this,

And every inhabitant on it mourn?

And will it not all rise like a river

And be driven about

And be submerged like the River of Egypt?

And it will happen on that day,

Says the Lord, the Lord,

That I will make the sun set at noon,

And I will make the earth dark on a day in broad daylight.

And I will turn your feasts into mourning

And all your songs into a dirge,

And I will cause you to put sackcloth round every waist,

And there will be baldness on every head,

And I will make the land like mourning for an only son,

And its final condition will be a bitter day.

Behold, the days are coming,

Says the Lord, the Lord,

When I will send a famine to the land,

But not a famine of bread,

And not thirst for water,

But one of hearing the words of the Lord.

And they will wander from sea to sea,

And from the north to the east,

And they will run to and fro

To seek the word of the Lord,

But they will not find it.

On that day, the beautiful virgins will faint,

As will the young men, from thirst,

Who swear by the guilt of Samaria,

And say, ‘As your God lives, Dan’,

And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives.’

So they will fall,

And not rise again.”

I saw the Lord^* standing on the altar,

And he said, “Strike the capital of the pillar

So that the lintels shake,

And make them all crash onto their heads,

And I will kill the last of them with the sword.

None of them fleeing will get away,

And no fugitive among them will escape.

Even if they dig through to the underworld,

My hand will take them from there,

And even if they ascend to heaven,

I will bring them down from there.

And if they hide on the top of Carmel,

I will search and take them from there,

And if they conceal themselves from my eyes on the sea bed,

I will command the serpent

And it will bite them,

Ousting them from there.

And if they go into exile before their enemies,

There I will command the sword,

And it will kill them.

And I will set my eye against them,

For their harm and not for their good.

And it is the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

Who strikes the earth

So that it melts,

So that all its inhabitants mourn,

And it all rises like a river,

And it is submerged like the River of Egypt;

Who builds his high residences in the heavens,

And as for his vault of the heavens above the earth,

He founded it.

He calls to the water of the sea,

And pours it out on the surface of the earth

– The Lord is his name.

Are you not to me like the sons of Ethiopians,

O sons of Israel?

Says the Lord.

Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt?

And the Philistines from Caphtor,

And the Aramaean from Kir?

Look, the eyes of the Lord, the Lord, are against the sinful kingdom,

And I will cut it off from the face of the earth,

Except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,

Says the Lord.

For behold, I am about to command

And cause the house of Israel to wander among all the nations,

As corn is shaken around in a sieve,

But no grain falls to the ground.

All sinners among my people will die by the sword,

Who say,

‘No evil will approach and come upon us.’

And I will build her up

As in days of old,

Look, the days are coming,

Says the Lord,

When the ploughman will be close behind the reaper,

And the grape-treader the seed-sower,

And the mountains will distil new wine,

And all the hills will melt.

And I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel,

And they will rebuild the desolate cities

And they will dwell in them,

And they will plant vineyards

And they will drink their wine,

And they will make gardens

And they will eat their fruit.

And I will plant them on their land,

And they will not be plucked up any more from their land

Which I have given to them,

Says the Lord your God.”

“We have heard a report from the Lord,

And an envoy sent among the nations,

Saying, ‘Rise and let us rise against her in war.’

Look,

I have made you small among the nations;

You are greatly despised.

The insolence of your heart has deceived you,

You who dwell in the fissures of the rock.

He who has a high dwelling place

Says in his heart,

‘Who can bring me down to earth?’

Even if you exalt yourself like the eagle,

And even if you make your nest among the stars,

I will bring you down from there,

Says the Lord.

If thieves were to come to you,

Or burglars in the night,

How you would be ruined!

Would they not steal as much as they want?

If grape-harvest raiders come to you,

Will they not just leave gleanings?

How the affairs of Esau are investigated,

And how his hidden designs are searched out!

All your allies have sent you to the border;

They have deceived you.

Those who were well-disposed to you have outwitted you;

They place your bread in a hunter's net under you,

But you have no understanding about it at all.

Will I not destroy the wise men of Edom on that day,

Says the Lord,

And remove understanding from the mount of Esau?

And your warriors of Teman will be afraid

Of each man being cut off

From the mount of Esau,

And they will be afraid of slaughter.

For the violence done against your brother Jacob,

Shame will cover you,

And you will be cut off age-abidingly.

On the day when you stood opposite Jacob,

On the day when strangers took his army captive,

And foreigners came to his {K: gate} [Q: gates]

And cast lots over Jerusalem,

You too were one of them.

But do not look with satisfaction

On the day of your brother,

On the day of his loss of sovereignty.

And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah

On the day when they perish,

And do not gloat

On the day of their adversity.

Do not go to the gate of my people

On the day of their calamity,

And do not look upon their suffering

On the day of their calamity,

And do not send forces against their forces

On the day of their calamity.

And do not stand at the road junction,

To cut off their escapees,

And do not close off their fugitives

On the day of adversity.

For the day of the Lord is near,

Coming upon all nations.

As you have done,

So it shall be done to you;

Your recompense will return onto your head.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,

So all the nations will drink continually.

And they will drink and swallow,

And they will be as if they had never existed.

And on Mount Zion there will be deliverance,

And it will be holy,

And the house of Jacob will receive their inheritances.

And the house of Jacob will become fire,

And the house of Joseph a flame,

But the house of Esau will become stubble.

So they will be burned and consumed,

And there will not be any escapee of the house of Esau,

For the Lord has spoken.

And the south will inherit the mount of Esau,

And the lowlands will inherit the Philistines,

And they will inherit the territory of Ephraim,

And the territory of Samaria.

And Benjamin will inherit Gilead.

And the captives of these forces of the sons of Israel

Who are scattered among the Canaanites

Will inherit territory as far as Zarephath.

And the captives of Jerusalem

Who are in Sepharad

Will inherit the cities of the south.

And saviours will go to Mount Zion,

To judge the mount of Esau,

And the kingdom will be the Lord's.”

“I called on account of my predicament to the Lord,

And he answered me.

I cried out from the belly of the underworld,

And you heard my voice.

And you cast me into the deep,

In the heart of the seas,

And the tide surrounded me.

All your breakers and your waves passed over me.

And I said,

‘I have been driven out of your sight,

But I will look again at your holy temple.’

Water has surrounded me,

Threatening my life.

The deep has encompassed me;

Sea-weed is bound around my head.

I descended to the roots of the mountains;

The earth with its bars were closing in after me for age-long time,

But you rescued my life from the pit,

O Lord my God.

When my life was draining away from me,

I remembered the Lord,

And my prayer came to you

– To your holy temple.

Those who pay respect to vain idols

Abandon themselves to their tender mercies,

But I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving;

That which I vowed,

I will fulfil,

For salvation is of the Lord.”

Hear, all you people,

And hearken, O earth and your fulness,

And let my Lord the Lord be a witness against you

– That is the Lord^*

From his holy temple.

For look, the Lord is coming out of his place,

And he will descend and step

Onto the idolatrous raised sites of the earth.

Then the mountains will melt under him,

And the valleys will be split;

They will be like wax in front of a fire,

And like water pouring down a gully.

All this is for the transgression of Jacob,

And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria?

And what are the idolatrous raised sites of Judah?

Are they not in Jerusalem?

“And I will make Samaria a ruin of the countryside

– Vineyard plantation sites.

And I will pour her stones out into the valley,

And I will expose her foundations.

And all her carved images will be beaten in pieces,

And all her wages of prostitution will be burnt in fire.

And I will make all her idols a desolation,

For she gathered them from the wages of prostitution,

And to the wages of prostitution they shall return.”

For this I will mourn and howl;

I will walk as one who has been stripped and is naked.

I will undertake mourning like jackals,

And lamentation like ostriches.

For her wounds are incurable,

For this has come to Judah;

He has reached the gate of my people

– Jerusalem.

Do not relate this in Gath;

Do not weep at all.

In the house of Aphrah,

{Q: Roll} [K: You rolled] in the dust.

Transgress as you will,

O inhabitants of Shaphir,

In nakedness and shame.

The inhabitant of Zaanan did not come out

At the mourning of Beth-Ezel;

He will take his support away from you.

For the inhabitants of Maroth waited for good times,

When bad times came down from the Lord,

At the gate of Jerusalem.

Hitch the steed to the chariot,

O inhabitants of Lachish.

It is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion,

For the transgressions of Israel have been found in you.

Therefore give a bill of divorce in Moresheth-Gath.

The houses of Achzib are deceit to the kings of Israel.

I am still going to bring the dispossessor to you,

O inhabitants of Mareshah.

The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

Make yourself bald and shave yourself,

For the sake of your delightful sons.

Make your baldness wide like the eagle,

For they will be deported away from you.

Woe to those who devise vain things,

And those who engage in evil on their couches.

At morning light they perform it,

For it is in the power of their hand.

And they covet fields,

And they seize them,

And they covet houses,

And they expropriate them,

And they oppress a fellow and his household,

And a man and his inheritance.

Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“Look, I am devising evil on this family

– A yoke from which you will not be able to move your necks –

And you will not walk haughtily,

For it will be a time of evil.

On that day a proverb will be uttered against you,

And a mournful lamentation will be delivered,

Which will say,

‘We have been completely plundered;

He has changed the portion of my people.

How he has removed what was mine,

By overturning our fields

And dividing them up.’ ”

Therefore you will not have anyone drawing a boundary by lot,

In the convocation of the Lord.

“Do not prophesy”, they prophesy.

So they do not prophesy to these people.

No-one withdraws from the shame he incurs.

“Are you called the house of Jacob?

Has the Lord become impatient?

Or are these things his works?

Are not my works good

With him who walks uprightly?

And recently my people would rise as if against an enemy.

Encountering a garment,

You would strip off the mantle

From passers-by, confidently

– Those returning from battle.

You drive out the women of my people,

Each from her pleasant home.

You have taken away my honour from her children age-abidingly.

Rise and go,

For this is not rest,

Because of uncleanness,

And it is destructive with a pernicious destruction.

If a man walks in a spirit of falsehood,

And he lies,

Saying, ‘I will prophesy to you of wine and strong drink’,

Then he will be accepted as a prophet of this people.

I will certainly gather all of you, Jacob,

I will certainly collect the remainder of Israel

And put him together like the sheep of Bozrah,

Like a flock in the middle of its pasture.

The women will bustle with so many people.

The demolisher has gone out.

They break what is in front of them,

And they cross the gate and come out through it.

Their king crosses in front of them,

And the Lord is at their head.”

And I said,

“Hear, I beseech you, O heads of Jacob,

And leaders of the house of Israel.

Is it not incumbent upon you to know judgment?

You are haters of good

And lovers of evil.

You flay their skin off them

And remove their flesh off their bones.”

And what they eat is the flesh of my people,

And they flay their skin off them

And break their bones,

And they chop them up for cooking in a pot,

Or as meat for stewing in a cauldron.

Then they will cry out to the Lord,

But he will not answer them,

And he will hide his face from them at that time,

According to how they have done wrong in their works.

This is what the Lord says

Concerning the prophets who are leading my people astray,

Biting with their teeth,

And who call, “Peace”,

(And whoever does not deliver according to their speech,

They prepare a holy war against him):

“Therefore you will have a night blackout from visions,

And darkness from divining,

And the sun will set on the prophets,

And daylight will grow dim on them.

And the seers will be ashamed,

And the diviners will blush,

And they will all cover their mouth,

For there will be no answer from God.”

But truly, I am full of power

With the spirit of the Lord,

And of judgment and of courage

To tell Jacob of his transgression

And Israel of his sin.

Hear this, I beseech you,

You heads of the house of Jacob,

And you leaders of the house of Israel,

Who exercise judgment abominably,

And pervert everything that is upright,

And you who build Zion with blood,

And Jerusalem with iniquity.

Its leaders judge by bribery,

And its priests teach for a fee,

And its prophets divine for money.

Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,

“Is not the Lord among us?

No evil shall come upon us.”

Therefore, on your account,

Zion will be ploughed to a field,

And Jerusalem will become ruins,

And the Temple Mount will become woodland heights.

And it will come to pass in the last days

That the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established

As the foremost of the mountains,

And it will be exalted above the hills,

And the various peoples will flow to it.

And many Gentile nations will go,

And they will say,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

And to the house of the God of Jacob,

And he will instruct us concerning his ways,

And let us walk in his paths.”

For the law will go out from Zion,

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he will judge among many peoples,

And he will convict mighty nations,

However far away.

And they will beat their swords into ploughshares

And their spears into pruning shears.

Nation will not lift up the sword against nation,

And they will no longer learn warfare.

And each man will sit under his vine

And under his fig tree.

And there will be no-one making them afraid,

For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

For all the various peoples will walk each in the name of his god,

But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God,

For the age and in perpetuity.

On that day, says the Lord,

I will gather the lame women,

And collect her who has been cast out,

And those I have afflicted.

And I will make the lame women a remnant,

And her who has been cast out a great nation,

And the Lord will reign over them,

On Mount Zion,

From that time and age-abidingly.

And as for you, O tower of the flock,

Citadel of the daughter of Zion,

To you it will betake itself and come

– The first dominion,

The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

Now why do you shout noisily?

Is there no king among you?

Or has your adviser ceased to exist?

For a writhing has seized you

Like a woman giving birth.

Writhe and go into labour,

O daughter of Zion,

Like a woman giving birth.

For now you will go out of the town,

And dwell in the countryside,

And you will go to Babylon,

But there you will be rescued;

There the Lord will redeem you

From the grip of your enemies.

And now, many nations will be gathered against you,

Saying, “Let her be profaned”,

And, “Let our eyes see Zion.”

But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord,

And they do not understand his counsel,

For he will gather them,

Like a sheaf taken to the threshing floor.

“Rise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

For I will make your horn of iron,

And I will make your hooves of copper,

And you will grind many peoples small”,

And I will consecrate their unjust gain to the Lord,

And their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Now gather in troops,

O daughter of the troop.

He has placed a siege against us.

They will strike the judge of Israel

With a rod against the cheek.

Yet his goings are of age-old time.

Therefore he will suffer them

Until the time when she who is giving birth

Has given birth,

Then the rest of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel.

And he will stand and tend them

In the strength of the Lord,

In the excellence of the name of the Lord his God,

And they will remain secure,

For then he will have become great up to the ends of the earth.

And this man will be peace.

When Assyria comes to our land,

And when he treads in our palaces,

We will raise up against him seven shepherds

And eight princely men.

And they will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

And the land of Nimrod at its gates.

And he will deliver us from Assyria,

When he comes into our land,

And when he steps into our territory.

And the remainder of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples,

Like dew from the Lord,

Like showers on the grass.

And he will not put hope in man,

Nor will he put expectation in the sons of Adam.

And the remainder of Jacob will be among the Gentiles,

In the midst of many peoples,

Like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

Which, if it comes across them,

It tramples and tears them to pieces,

And there is no-one to deliver them.

Let your hand be raised against your adversaries,

And may all your enemies be cut off.

And it will come to pass on that day,

Says the Lord,

That I will cut off your horses from your midst,

And I will destroy your chariots.

And I will cut off the cities of your land,

And I will demolish all your fortresses.

And I will cut off sorceries from your reach,

And you will have no diviners by clouds.

And I will cut off your carved images,

And your pillars from your midst,

And you will no longer worship the works of your hands.

And I will pull down your phallic parks from your precincts,

And I will destroy your cities.

And I will take vengeance in anger and in fury

On the Gentiles who have not listened.”