Grief over Samaria and Jerusalem

Attention! Let all the people of the world listen! Let the earth and everything in it hear. The Sovereign Lord is making accusations against you; the Lord speaks from his holy Temple.

All her carved images will be smashed. All her sacred treasures will be burned. These things were bought with the money earned by her prostitution, and they will now be carried away to pay prostitutes elsewhere.”

Don’t tell our enemies in Gath; don’t weep at all. You people in Beth-leaphrah, roll in the dust to show your despair.

You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.

Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!”

Now the night will close around you, cutting off all your visions. Darkness will cover you, putting an end to your predictions. The sun will set for you prophets, and your day will come to an end.

Listen to me, you leaders of Israel! You hate justice and twist all that is right.

You rulers make decisions based on bribes; you priests teach God’s laws only for a price; you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid. Yet all of you claim to depend on the Lord. “No harm can come to us,” you say, “for the Lord is here among us.”

The Lord’s Future Reign

In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all— the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.

But why are you now screaming in terror? Have you no king to lead you? Have your wise people all died? Pain has gripped you like a woman in childbirth.

“Rise up and crush the nations, O Jerusalem!” says the Lord. “For I will give you iron horns and bronze hooves, so you can trample many nations to pieces. You will present their stolen riches to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.”

A Ruler from Bethlehem

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.

The people of Israel will stand up to their foes, and all their enemies will be wiped out.

I will put an end to all witchcraft, and there will be no more fortune-tellers.

I will destroy all your idols and sacred pillars, so you will never again worship the work of your own hands.

I will pour out my vengeance on all the nations that refuse to obey me.”

“Therefore, I will wound you! I will bring you to ruin for all your sins.

You keep only the laws of evil King Omri; you follow only the example of wicked King Ahab! Therefore, I will make an example of you, bringing you to complete ruin. You will be treated with contempt, mocked by all who see you.”

The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers.

I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him. But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.

People from many lands will come and honor you— from Assyria all the way to the towns of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from distant seas and mountains.

All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you. They will be embarrassed at their feeble power. They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them.