¹Woe 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.

²Cross 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?

³– You who push back the evil day,

But bring forward the seat of violence,

⁴You who lie on ivory beds

And stretch out on their couches

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

⁵Who chant to the sound of the lute,

Who like David invent for themselves musical instruments,

⁶Who drink from sacrificial wine dishes

And anoint themselves with prime oils,

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

⁷That 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.’

⁸The 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.’

⁹And it will come to pass, if ten men remain in one house, that they will die. ¹⁰And a man's uncle will take him aside, as will his cremator, to take the bones out from the house, and he will say to anyone who is at the sides of the house, ‘Are there any more with you?’ And he will say, ‘None.’ And he will say, ‘Keep quiet, for it is not the time to make mention of the name of the Lord.’

¹¹For look, the Lord commands

And strikes a large house into fragments,

And a small house into split stone.

¹²Do 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.

¹³You rejoice in a thing of no substance,

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

¹⁴For 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.”