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“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies:
    “I abhor the pride of Jacob,
    and detest his fortresses.
    Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house,
    that they shall die.

10 “When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’

11 “For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces,
    and the little house into bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
    Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
    and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;
13 you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say,
    ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’
14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,”
    says Yahweh, the God of Armies;
    “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”

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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.