³ “My anger burns against the shepherds,
    and I will punish the leaders;^(H)
for the Lord Almighty will care
    for his flock, the people of Judah,
    and make them like a proud horse in battle.^(I)
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,^(J)
    from him the tent peg,^(K)
from him the battle bow,^(L)
    from him every ruler.
⁵ Together they^[a] will be like warriors in battle
    trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.^(M)
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
    and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.^(N)

⁶ “I will strengthen^(O) Judah
    and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
    because I have compassion^(P) on them.^(Q)
They will be as though
    I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
    and I will answer^(R) them.
⁷ The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
    and their hearts will be glad as with wine.^(S)
Their children will see it and be joyful;
    their hearts will rejoice^(T) in the Lord.
⁸ I will signal^(U) for them
    and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
    they will be as numerous^(V) as before.
⁹ Though I scatter them among the peoples,
    yet in distant lands they will remember me.^(W)
They and their children will survive,
    and they will return.
¹⁰ I will bring them back from Egypt
    and gather them from Assyria.^(X)
I will bring them to Gilead^(Y) and Lebanon,
    and there will not be room^(Z) enough for them.
¹¹ They will pass through the sea of trouble;
    the surging sea will be subdued
    and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.^(AA)
Assyria’s pride^(AB) will be brought down
    and Egypt’s scepter^(AC) will pass away.^(AD)
12 I will strengthen^(AE) them in the Lord
    and in his name they will live securely,^(AF)”
declares the Lord.

¹⁵ “The leech has two daughters.
    ‘Give! Give!’ they cry.

“There are three things that are never satisfied,^(A)
    four that never say, ‘Enough!’:
¹⁶ the grave,^(B) the barren womb,
    land, which is never satisfied with water,
    and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

¹⁷ “The eye that mocks^(C) a father,
    that scorns an aged mother,
will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley,
    will be eaten by the vultures.^(D)

¹⁸ “There are three things that are too amazing for me,
    four that I do not understand:
¹⁹ the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a young woman.

²⁰ “This is the way of an adulterous woman:
    She eats and wipes her mouth
    and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’^(E)