The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

People will oppress each other— man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored.

A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!”

In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”

Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.

Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,

the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?”

In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house of David— one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.

But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters!

Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!’”

You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool.

“Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man.

“Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”

They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.