Beginning

² Listen, all you peoples!
    Give heed, O earth, and all who dwell in it.
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
    the Lord from his holy temple.
³ Take note that the Lord is leaving his dwelling place;
    he comes down and treads upon the heights of the earth.
⁴ The mountains melt at his touch,
    and the valleys are torn open,
like wax near a fire,
    like water pouring down a hillside.
⁵ All this is the result
    of the crime of Jacob
    and the sins of Israel.
What is the crime of Jacob?
    Is it not Samaria?
And what is the sin of the house of Judah?
    Is it not Jerusalem?
⁶ Therefore, I will reduce Samaria
    to a ruin in the open country,
    a place for planting vineyards.
I will hurl down her stones into the valley
    and lay bare her foundations.
⁷ All of her idols will be shattered,
    all of her earnings will be consumed by fire,
    and all of her statues I will lay waste.
For she amassed her gifts
    from the wages of prostitution,^[b]
and the earnings of a prostitute
    they once more will become.

⁸ This is the reason why I will lament and wail,
    why I will go barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
    and mourn like a desert owl.
⁹ There is no remedy for the wounds
    that the Lord inflicts;
    now the blow has fallen on Judah.
It has reached the very gate of my people,
    even to Jerusalem.
¹⁰ Do not announce it in Gath,
    nor shed any tears.
In Beth-leaphrah
    roll yourselves in the dust.
¹¹ Begin your journey,
    you inhabitants of Shaphir.
Those who dwell in Zaanan
    have not left their city.
Beth-ezel is filled with lamentation
    and no longer can offer you support.
¹² The inhabitants of Maroth
    are filled with despair.
For disaster has come down from the Lord
    to the very gate of Jerusalem.
¹³ Harness the steeds to the chariots
    you inhabitants of Lachish.
You first led the daughter of Zion into sin;
    the crimes of Israel can be traced to you.
¹⁴ Therefore, you shall offer parting gifts
    to Moresheth-gath.
Beth-achzib will prove to be deceptive
    to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵ I will again send a conqueror against you,
    O inhabitants of Mareshah.
And the glory of Israel
    shall be transferred to Adullam.
¹⁶ Shave your heads in mourning
    for the children who were your delight.
Make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
    for they have gone from you into exile.

¹ Woe to those who plot evil,
    who lie in their beds planning iniquity.
When morning dawns they perform their wicked deeds
    since they have the power to do so.
² They seize the fields that they covet;
    they confiscate houses as well.
They lay hands on the owner of a house,
    and take his inheritance as well.

Behold, I am planning against this people an evil
    from which you will not be able to save your necks.
Nor will you walk proudly,
    for it will be a time of disaster.
⁴ On that day they will ridicule you,
    and your mournful dirge will be heard:
“We are utterly ruined;
    our land has been appropriated by our captors.
Our fields have been awarded to renegades,
    and no one can retrieve them.”
⁵ Therefore, you will have no one
    to divide the land by lot
    in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶ “Do not preach,” they advise;
    “one should not expound on such matters;
    disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷ O house of Jacob, should it be said:
    “Has the Lord’s patience been exhausted?
    Does he do such things?
His words only prophesy good
    to those who are upright.”
⁸ But now you have risen up
    as an enemy to my people.
You strip the cloaks from travelers
    who pass by peacefully,
    or from soldiers returning from battle.
⁹ The women of my people you drive forth
    from their pleasant homes
and deprive their children
    of my glory forever,
¹⁰ commanding them, “Get up and depart,
    for you cannot stay here.”
To obtain something worthless for yourselves,
    you do not hesitate to practice extortion.

¹¹ If someone were to go about
    uttering falsehoods and lies, and saying,
“I prophesy that you will have your fill
    of wine and strong drink,”
such a man would be the perfect prophet
    for a people like this.
¹² I will gather all of you together, O Jacob;
    I will assemble the remnant of Israel.
I will gather them together
    like sheep into a fold,
like a flock in a pasture;
    no longer will they be filled with panic.
¹³ With their leader proceeding before them,
    they shall break through the gate and go out.
Their king will go forth before them,
    the Lord at their head.

Listen, you leaders of the house of Jacob,
    you rulers of the house of Israel.
Should you not be responsible
    to know what is right?
² And yet you hate what is good
    and love what is evil.
³ You eat the flesh of my people
    and strip off their skin;
you break their bones into pieces
    like flesh for the pot,
    like meat in a cauldron.
⁴ Then they will cry out to the Lord,
    but he will not answer them.
He will conceal his face from them at that time
    because of the evil they have done.

⁵ Thus says the Lord about the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
who promise prosperity
    when they have something to eat,
but who declare war against those
    who put no food into their mouths.
⁶ Therefore, you will have night without vision
    and darkness without divination.
The sun will go down on the prophets;
    for them the daytime will be black.
⁷ Then the seers will be disgraced
    and the diviners will be put to shame.
They will all cover their lips,
    for there is no answer from God.
⁸ But as for me, I am filled with strength,
    with the Spirit of the Lord,
    with justice and might
to declare to Jacob his crime
    and to Israel his sin.

⁹ Listen to this,
    you leaders of the house of Jacob,
    you rulers of the house of Israel,
who despise justice
    and pervert what is right,
¹⁰ who build Zion through bloodshed
    and Jerusalem through wickedness.
¹¹ Her leaders accept bribes for favorable judgments,
    her priests render judgments for a fee,
    her prophets practice divination for money.
And yet they rely upon the Lord, saying,
    “Isn’t the Lord in our midst?
    No harm can come upon us.”
¹² Therefore, because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field.
Jerusalem will be reduced to a heap of rubble,
    and the temple mount to a height
    overgrown with thickets.

¹ In days to come,
    the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be established as the highest of the mountains,
    towering above other hills.
Peoples will stream toward it;
²     many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
so that he may teach us his ways
    and we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion will instruction go forth,
    and from Jerusalem the word of the Lord.
³ He will judge between many peoples
    and serve as an arbiter,
    between mighty and distant nations.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
    nor will they ever again be trained for war.
⁴ Each man will sit under his own vine
    or under his own fig tree
with no cause for alarm,
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
⁵ For all the peoples go forth,
    each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God,
    forever and ever.

⁶ On that day, says the Lord,
    I will gather the lame;
I will assemble those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted.
⁷ I will make the lame into a remnant,
    and turn into a strong nation those who were cast off.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion
    now and forevermore.
⁸ As for you, O tower of the flock,^[e]
    hill of daughter Zion,
the promises made to you
    will be fulfilled,
and your former security will be restored,
    the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem.

⁹ Why are you now crying out?
    Have you no king any longer,
    or has your counselor perished,
that you are afflicted with pains
    like a woman in labor?
¹⁰ Writhe in pain and cry aloud,
    O daughter Zion,
    like a woman in labor.
For now you must go forth from the city
    and camp in the open country.
You will go to Babylon
    where you will be saved.
There the Lord will deliver you
    from the hands of your enemies.

¹¹ But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be profaned;
    let us gloat over Zion.”
¹² However, they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord
    or comprehend his plan.
For he has gathered them
    like sheaves on the threshing floor.
¹³ Arise and thresh,
    O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn like iron
    and your hooves like bronze
    so that you may crush many peoples.
You shall devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,
    their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

¹⁴ Now withdraw behind your walls,
    for they have laid siege against you.
With a rod they will strike on the cheek
    the ruler of Israel.

¹ But from you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,^[g]
    among the tiniest of the clans of Judah,
from you will come forth for me
    one who is to be a ruler in Israel,
one whose origins are from the distant past,
    from ancient times.
² Therefore, the Lord will abandon them
    only until she who is in labor has given birth.
Then those of the people who survive
    will be reunited with the Israelites.
³ He will rise up to shepherd his flock
    by the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name
    of the Lord his God.
And they will live in security,
    for then his greatness will be renowned
to the ends of the earth.
⁴     He will ensure their peace.

If the Assyrians invade our country
    and set foot upon our land,
we shall raise against them seven shepherds
    and appoint eight^[h] men to serve as rulers.
⁵ They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,
    and the land of Nimrod with drawn swords.
And we will be delivered from Assyria
    if it invades our country
    or treads upon our borders.

⁶ Then the remnant of Jacob,
    surrounded by many peoples,
will be like dew from the Lord,
    like showers on the grass,
which do not depend upon man
    or wait for any man’s bidding.
⁷ And among the nations the remnant of Jacob
    will be surrounded by many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
    like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
trampling and tearing to pieces as it goes,
    with no one able to stop the carnage.
⁸ Your hand will be lifted up over your foes,
    and all your adversaries will be destroyed.
⁹ On that day, says the Lord,
    I will slaughter your horses
    and destroy your chariots.
¹⁰ I will demolish the cities of your land
    and raze all your fortresses to the ground.
¹¹ I will eliminate your sorcerers,
    and there will be no more soothsayers among you.
¹² I will cut down your images
    and the sacred pillars in your midst;
you will no longer worship
    the work of your hands.
¹³ I will uproot your sacred poles^[i]
    and destroy your cities.
¹⁴ In anger and fury, I will wreak vengeance
    on the nations that have disobeyed me.

¹ Listen to what the Lord has to say:
    Arise and state your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
² Hearken, you mountains, to the Lord’s accusations;
    listen, you foundations that support the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
    he intends to present it to Israel.
³ O my people, what, have I done to you?
    How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
    I redeemed you from the place of slavery,
and I sent as your leaders
    Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ My people, remember the plan
    that Balak, the king of Moab, devised,
    and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him.
Recall also your journey from Shittim^[j] to Gilgal
    so that you may know the saving justice of the Lord.

⁶ With what will I come before the Lord
    when I bow down before God on high?
Will I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Should I offer my firstborn son for my transgressions,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?^[k]
8 The Lord has told you, O man, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
Only this: to do what is right, to show mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God.^[l]

⁹ Consider carefully what the Lord cries out to the city,
    for to fear his name is a mark of wisdom:
¹⁰ “Listen, you tribe of assembled citizens!
    How can I ignore the false measure
    and the accursed short bushel?
¹¹ Can I overlook rigged scales
    or a bag of fraudulent weights?
¹² The wealthy men of the city are steeped in violence;
    its inhabitants are liars
    and their tongues speak deceitfully.
¹³ Therefore, I intend to strike you with devastation
    because of your sins.
¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied,
    for your stomach will continue to experience hunger.
You will acquire but be unable to save,
    and what you do save,
    I will deliver up to the sword.
¹⁵ You will sow
    but you will not reap;
you will press the olives
    but you will not anoint yourself with oil;
you will tread the grapes
    but you will not drink the wine.
¹⁶ For you have kept the statutes of Omri
    and all the practices of the house of Ahab;
    you have adopted all their policies.
Therefore, I will make your land desolate
    and your citizens an object of scorn.
From this time on
    you will endure the scorn of other nations.”

¹ How great is my misery!
    I have become like one who,
when the summer fruit has been gathered
    and the vines have been gleaned,
finds not a single cluster of grapes to eat,
    nor any of those early figs for which I long.
² The faithful have vanished from the land;
    there is no honest person to be found.
They all lie in wait to shed blood;
    each one hunts his brother with a net.
³ Their hands are skilled in performing evil deeds;
    the ruler demands gifts,
the judge asks for a bribe,
    the powerful man follows his own desires.
⁴ The best of them is like a briar,
    the most upright like a thorn hedge.
The day of their punishment now approaches;
    now they will be seized by confusion.
⁵ Put no trust in a friend:
    have no confidence in a loved one.
Guard the portals of your mouth
    against her who lies in your embrace.
⁶ For a son maligns his father,
    a daughter rebels against her mother,
a daughter-in-law rises up against her mother-in-law;
    your enemies are to be found in your own household.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord.
    I place my hope in God my savior;
    my God will hear me.

⁸ Do not gloat over me, O my enemy.
    Although I have fallen, I will arise.
Although I sit in darkness,
    the Lord is my light.
⁹ I must endure the anger of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until he takes up my cause
    and forgives my wrongs,
until he brings me into the light
    and I will behold his saving justice.
¹⁰ When my enemies see this,
    they will be filled with shame,
those who said to me,
    “Where is the Lord, your God?”
My eyes will see their downfall
    as they are trampled underfoot
    like mud in the streets.
¹¹ That will be the day for rebuilding your walls,
    the day for extending your boundaries.
¹² On that day a people will come to you,
    all the way from Assyria and from Egypt,
from Tyre to the Euphrates,
    from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ And the earth will be a wasteland
    because of its inhabitants,
    as a suitable punishment for their deeds.^[n]

¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
    the flock that is your heritage,
that lives by itself in a forest
    with meadows surrounding it.
Let them graze in Bashan^[o] and Gilead,
    as in the days of old.
¹⁵ Show us wondrous signs
    as in the days when you came out
    from the land of Egypt.
¹⁶ The nations will see and be confounded
    despite all their power.
They will put their hands over their mouths;
    their ears will become deaf.
¹⁷ They will lick the dust like snakes,
    like reptiles that crawl on the ground.
They will come trembling out of their strongholds
    and turn in dread to behold the Lord, our God,
    as they approach him in awe and terror.

¹⁸ What god can compare with you,
    the God who takes away guilt
and forgives the transgressions
    of the remnant of your people?
You will not allow your anger to fester forever,
    for your delight is in bestowing mercy.
¹⁹ You will again show us compassion
    and wash away our guilt;
you will cast all our sins
    into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and unswerving mercy to Abraham
as you swore to our ancestors
    from the days of old.