Add parallel Print Page Options

Now the Lord has sworn this oath
    by his own name, the Pride of Israel[a]:
“I will never forget
    the wicked things you have done!
The earth will tremble for your deeds,
    and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
    it will heave up, then sink again.

“In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth while it is still day.
10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
    and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
    and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
    How very bitter that day will be!

11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from border to border[b]
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.
13 Beautiful girls and strong young men
    will grow faint in that day,
    thirsting for the Lord’s word.
14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
    who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
    and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba[c]
they will all fall down,
    never to rise again.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 8:7 Hebrew the pride of Jacob. See note on 3:13.
  2. 8:12 Hebrew from north to east.
  3. 8:14 Hebrew the way of Beersheba.

The Lord has sworn(A) by the Pride of Jacob:[a](B)

I will never forget all their deeds.(C)
Because of this, won’t the land quake(D)
and all who dwell in it mourn?(E)
All of it will rise like the Nile;(F)
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.(G)

And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God
I will make the sun go down at noon;(H)
I will darken the land in the daytime.(I)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning(J)
and all your songs into lamentation;(K)
I will cause everyone[b] to wear sackcloth(L)
and every head to be shaved.(M)
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son(N)
and its outcome like a bitter day.

11 Look, the days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(O)
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the Lord,(P)
but they will not find it.
13 In that day the beautiful young women,(Q)
the young men also, will faint from thirst.(R)
14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria(S)
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”(T)
or, “As the way[c][d] of Beer-sheba lives”(U)
they will fall, never to rise again.(V)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 8:7 = the Lord or the promised land
  2. 8:10 Lit every waist
  3. 8:14 LXX reads god
  4. 8:14 Or power