Isaiah 29-35

New King James Version

Woe to Jerusalem

29 “Woe ^(A)to ^[a]Ariel, to Ariel, the city ^(B)where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
²Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
³I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
⁴You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, ^(C)out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵“Moreover the multitude of your ^(D)foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like ^(E)chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be ^(F)in an instant, suddenly.
⁶^(G)You will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and ^(H)earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
⁷^(I)The multitude of all the nations who fight against ^[b]Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be ^(J)as a dream of a night vision.
⁸^(K)It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”

The Blindness of Disobedience

⁹Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
^(L)They are drunk, ^(M)but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
¹⁰For ^(N)the Lord has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has ^(O)closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, ^(P)the seers.

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a ^[c]book ^(Q)that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

^(R)And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who ^[d]is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

¹³Therefore the Lord said:

^(S)“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me ^(T)with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
¹⁴^(U)Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
^(V)For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

¹⁵^(W)Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
^(X)They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
¹⁶Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the ^(Y)thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while
Till ^(Z)Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?
¹⁸^(AA)In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
¹⁹^(AB)The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And ^(AC)the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰For the ^[e]terrible one is brought to nothing,
^(AD)The scornful one is consumed,
And all who ^(AE)watch for iniquity are cut off—
²¹Who make a man an offender by a word,
And ^(AF)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the just ^(AG)by empty words.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, ^(AH)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ^(AI)ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
²³But when he sees his children,
^(AJ)The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
²⁴These also ^(AK)who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”

Futile Confidence in Egypt

30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
^(AL)“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who ^[f]devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
^(AM)That they may add sin to sin;
²^(AN)Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And ^(AO)have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
³^(AP)Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.
⁴For his princes were at ^(AQ)Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
⁵^(AR)They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
Or be help or benefit,
But a shame and also a reproach.”

⁶^(AS)The ^[g]burden against the beasts of the South.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
^(AT)The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;
⁷^(AU)For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
^[h]Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

A Rebellious People

⁸Now go, ^(AV)write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
⁹That ^(AW)this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
¹⁰^(AX)Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
^(AY)Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
¹¹Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

“Because you ^(AZ)despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
¹³Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
^(BA)Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking ^(BB)comes suddenly, in an instant.
¹⁴And ^(BC)He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
^[i]A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”

¹⁵For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

^(BD)“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
^(BE)But you would not,
¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!

¹⁷^(BF)One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a ^[j]pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

¹⁸Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be ^(BG)gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
^(BH)Blessed are all those who ^(BI)wait for Him.

¹⁹For the people ^(BJ)shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall ^(BK)weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will ^(BL)answer you.
²⁰And though the Lord gives you
^(BM)The bread of adversity and the water of ^[k]affliction,
Yet ^(BN)your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
²¹Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you ^(BO)turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
²²^(BP)You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
^(BQ)You will say to them, “Get away!”

²³^(BR)Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be ^[l]fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
²⁴Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
²⁵There will be ^(BS)on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the ^(BT)great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
²⁶Moreover ^(BU)the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.

Judgment on Assyria

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
²⁸^(BV)His breath is like an overflowing stream,
^(BW)Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;
And there shall be ^(BX)a bridle in the jaws of the people,
Causing them to err.

²⁹You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into ^(BY)the mountain of the Lord,
To ^[m]the Mighty One of Israel.
³⁰^(BZ)The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, ^(CA)and hailstones.
³¹For ^(CB)through the voice of the Lord
Assyria will be ^[n]beaten down,
As He strikes with the ^(CC)rod.
³²And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the Lord lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of ^(CD)brandishing He will fight with it.
³³^(CE)For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.

The Folly of Not Trusting God

31 Woe to those ^(CF)who go down to Egypt for help,
And ^(CG)rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
^(CH)Nor seek the Lord!
²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And ^(CI)will not ^[o]call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish ^(CJ)together.

God Will Deliver Jerusalem

⁴For thus the Lord has spoken to me:

^(CK)“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the Lord of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
⁵^(CL)Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have ^(CM)deeply revolted. ⁷For in that day every man shall ^(CN)throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—^(CO)sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸“Then Assyria shall ^(CP)fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall ^(CQ)devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
⁹^(CR)He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the Lord,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

A Reign of Righteousness

32 Behold, ^(CS)a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And ^(CT)a ^[p]cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³^(CU)The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Also the heart of the ^[q]rash will ^(CV)understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called ^[r]generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work ^(CW)iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with ^(CX)lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸But a ^[s]generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

Consequences of Complacency

⁹Rise up, you women ^(CY)who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
¹³^(CZ)On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in ^(DA)the joyous city;
¹⁴^(DB)Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵Until ^(DC)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And ^(DD)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
¹⁷^(DE)The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet ^(DF)resting places,
¹⁹^(DG)Though hail comes down ^(DH)on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of ^(DI)the ox and the donkey.

A Prayer in Deep Distress

33 Woe to you ^(DJ)who plunder, though you have not been plundered;
And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
^(DK)When you cease plundering,
You will be ^(DL)plundered;
When you make an end of dealing treacherously,
They will deal treacherously with you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us;
^(DM)We have waited for You.
Be ^[t]their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³At the noise of the tumult the people ^(DN)shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

⁵^(DO)The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
^(DP)The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
⁸^(DQ)The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
^(DR)He has broken the covenant,
^[u]He has despised the ^[v]cities,
He regards no man.
⁹^(DS)The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

Impending Judgment on Zion

¹⁰“Now^(DT) I will rise,” says the Lord;
“Now I will be exalted,
Now I will lift Myself up.
¹¹^(DU)You shall conceive chaff,
You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
^(DV)Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
¹³Hear, ^(DW)you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring ^(DX)fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵He who ^(DY)walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And ^(DZ)shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶He will dwell on ^[w]high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His ^(EA)beauty;
They will see the land that is very far off.
¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror:
^(EB)“Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹^(EC)You will not see a fierce people,
^(ED)A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a ^[x]stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰^(EE)Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see ^(EF)Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
^(EG)Not one of ^(EH)its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no ^[y]galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²²(For the Lord is our ^(EI)Judge,
The Lord is our ^(EJ)Lawgiver,
^(EK)The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
^(EL)The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

Judgment on the Nations

34 Come ^(EM)near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
^(EN)Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
²For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the ^(EO)slaughter.
³Also their slain shall be thrown out;
^(EP)Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴^(EQ)All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
^(ER)All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as ^(ES)fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For ^(ET)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(EU)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶The ^(EV)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[z]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(EW)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[aa]saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(EX)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(EY)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(EZ)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(FA)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(FB)But the ^[ab]pelican and the ^[ac]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(FC)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And ^(FD)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(FE)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[ad]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[ae]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from ^(FF)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

The Future Glory of Zion

35 The ^(FG)wilderness and the ^[af]wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the ^(FH)desert^[ag] shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
²^(FI)It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the ^(FJ)glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

³^(FK)Strengthen the ^[ah]weak hands,
And make firm the ^[ai]feeble knees.
⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with ^(FL)vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and ^(FM)save you.”

⁵Then the ^(FN)eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And ^(FO)the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶Then the ^(FP)lame shall leap like a deer,
And the ^(FQ)tongue of the dumb sing.
For ^(FR)waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In ^(FS)the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A ^(FT)highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
^(FU)The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
⁹^(FV)No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰And the ^(FW)ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And ^(FX)sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Footnotes

Isaiah 29:1 Jerusalem, lit. Lion of God
Isaiah 29:7 Jerusalem
Isaiah 29:11 scroll
Isaiah 29:12 Lit. does not know books
Isaiah 29:20 terrifying
Isaiah 30:1 Lit. weave a web
Isaiah 30:6 oracle, prophecy
Isaiah 30:7 Lit. Rahab Sits Idle
Isaiah 30:14 A piece of broken pottery
Isaiah 30:17 A tree stripped of branches
Isaiah 30:20 oppression
Isaiah 30:23 rich
Isaiah 30:29 Lit. the Rock
Isaiah 30:31 Lit. shattered
Isaiah 31:2 retract
Isaiah 32:2 shelter
Isaiah 32:4 hasty
Isaiah 32:5 noble
Isaiah 32:8 noble
Isaiah 33:2 LXX omits their; Syr., Tg., Vg. our
Isaiah 33:8 Tg. They have been removed from their cities
Isaiah 33:8 So with MT, Vg.; DSS witnesses; LXX omits cities
Isaiah 33:16 Lit. heights
Isaiah 33:19 Unintelligible speech
Isaiah 33:21 ship
Isaiah 34:6 Lit. fat
Isaiah 34:7 Lit. made fat
Isaiah 34:11 Or owl
Isaiah 34:11 Or hedgehog
Isaiah 34:14 Lit. howling creatures
Isaiah 34:14 Heb. lilith
Isaiah 35:1 desert
Isaiah 35:1 Heb. arabah
Isaiah 35:3 Lit. sinking
Isaiah 35:3 tottering or stumbling

Micah 1-2

New King James Version

Judgment on Israel and Judah

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^(A)Micah of Moresheth in the days of ^(B)Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Judgment on Israel

²Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from ^(C)His holy temple.

³For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.
⁴^(D)The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.
⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the ^(E)high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria ^(F)a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will ^(G)uncover her foundations.
⁷All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her ^(H)pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the ^(I)pay of a harlot.”

Mourning for Israel and Judah

⁸Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
^(J)I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
⁹For her wounds are incurable.
For ^(K)it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.

¹⁰^(L)Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In ^[a]Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.
¹¹Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of ^[b]Shaphir;
The inhabitant of ^[c]Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.

¹²For the inhabitant of ^[d]Maroth ^[e]pined for good,
But ^(M)disaster came down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³O inhabitant of ^(N)Lachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were ^(O)found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you shall ^(P)give presents to ^[f]Moresheth Gath;
The houses of ^(Q)Achzib^[g] shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of ^(R)Mareshah;^[h]
The glory of Israel shall come to ^(S)Adullam.^[i]
¹⁶Make yourself ^(T)bald and cut off your hair,
Because of your ^(U)precious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into ^(V)captivity.

Woe to Evildoers

2 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And ^[j]work out evil on their beds!
At ^(W)morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
²They ^(X)covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this ^(Y)family I am devising ^(Z)disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
⁴In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And ^(AA)lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the ^[k]heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To ^[l]a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”

⁵Therefore you will have no ^[m]one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the Lord.

Lying Prophets

⁶“Do not prattle,” you say to those who ^[n]prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy ^[o]to you;
^[p]They shall not return insult for insult.
⁷You who are named the house of Jacob:
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words do good
To him who walks uprightly?

⁸“Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.
⁹The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.

¹⁰“Arise and depart,
For this is not your ^(AB)rest;
Because it is ^(AC)defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
¹¹If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
‘I will ^[q]prophesy to you ^[r]of wine and drink,’
Even he would be the ^(AD)prattler of this people.

Israel Restored

¹²“I^(AE) will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together ^(AF)like sheep of ^[s]the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
^(AG)They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
¹³The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
^(AH)Their king will pass before them,
^(AI)With the Lord at their head.”