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The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his own name, and this is what he, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:

“I despise the arrogance of Israel,[a]
    and I hate their fortresses.
I will give this city
    and everything in it to their enemies.”

(If there are ten men left in one house, they will all die. 10 And when a relative who is responsible to dispose of the dead[b] goes into the house to carry out the bodies, he will ask the last survivor, “Is anyone else with you?” When the person begins to swear, “No, by . . . ,” he will interrupt and say, “Stop! Don’t even mention the name of the Lord.”)

11 When the Lord gives the command,
    homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.

12 Can horses gallop over boulders?
    Can oxen be used to plow them?
But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison
    and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.
13 And you brag about your conquest of Lo-debar.[c]
    You boast, “Didn’t we take Karnaim[d] by our own strength?”

14 “O people of Israel, I am about to bring an enemy nation against you,”
    says the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
“They will oppress you throughout your land—
    from Lebo-hamath in the north
    to the Arabah Valley in the south.”

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Footnotes

  1. 6:8 Hebrew Jacob. See note on 3:13.
  2. 6:10 Or to burn the dead. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
  3. 6:13a Lo-debar means “nothing.”
  4. 6:13b Karnaim means “horns,” a term that symbolizes strength.

The Lord God has sworn by himself
(says the Lord, the God of hosts):
I abhor the pride of Jacob
    and hate his strongholds,
    and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.(A)

If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And if a relative, one who burns it,[a] takes up the body to bring it out of the house and says to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative[b] shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

11 For the Lord commands,
    and he will shatter the great house to bits
    and the little house to pieces.(B)
12 Do horses run on rocky crags?
    Does one plow the sea with oxen?[c]
But you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,(C)
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,[d]
    who say, “Have we not by our own strength
    taken Karnaim[e] for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
    to the Wadi Arabah.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 6.10 Heb he
  3. 6.12 Or Does one plow them with oxen
  4. 6.13 Or in a thing of nothingness
  5. 6.13 Or horns