Those who are wise among the people will give understanding to many, yet they will die by sword and flame, and be captured and plundered for a time.

And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whosoever acknowledgeth him he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

'And he sendeth forth his hand upon the lands, and the land of Egypt is not for an escape;

And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

and though she run after her lovers, yet shall she not get them: she shall seek them, but not find them. Then shall she say, 'Well, I will go turn again to my first husband, for at that time was I better at ease, than now.'

And made desolate her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, A gift they are to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And consumed them hath a beast of the field.

And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

And the earth shall respond to the grain and the new wine and the oil [which beg it to bring them forth],
And they will respond to Jezreel [My Israel, who will now be restored].

I will sow them upon earth, for a seed to mine own self, and will have mercy upon her, that was without mercy. And to them which were not my people, I will say, 'Thou art my people.' And he shall say, 'Thou art my God.'"

So I bought her to me for fifteen silver pieces, and for a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.

And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images.

Hear a word of Jehovah, sons of Israel, For a strife is to Jehovah with inhabitants of the land, For there is no truth, nor kindness, Nor knowledge of God, in the land,

My people at its staff asketh and its rod declareth to it, For a spirit of whoredoms hath caused to err, And they go a-whoring from under their God.

For as a refractory heifer hath Israel turned aside, Now doth Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, And, O house of the king, give ear, For the judgment is for you, For, a snare ye have been on Mizpah, And a net spread out on Tabor.

They give not up their habitual doings, To turn back unto their God, For a spirit of whoredoms is in their midst, And Jehovah they have not known.

Ephraim is for a desolation in a day of reproof, Among the tribes of Israel I have made known a sure thing.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

Even though they sold themselves to the nations, I will gather them. They will mourn for a while for the burden they were to the king and princes.

They pour out no wine for a drink offering unto the LORD, neither give they him their slain offerings: but they be unto them as mourner's meats, wherein all they that eat them are defiled. For the bread that they have such lust unto, shall not come into the house of the LORD.

Be ye sure, O Israel: the time of visitation is come, the days of recompensing are at hand. As for the prophet, ye hold him for a fool; and him that is rich in the spirit, for a mad man: so great is your wickedness and malice.

Ephraim! just as I provided for Tyre, was planted in a meadow, - yet, Ephraim, must needs bring forth for a murderer his children.

It also shall be carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

The pangs of a woman in travail shall come upon him: he is a son not wise; for at the time of the breaking forth of children, he was not there.

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

Set apart time for a fast! Call a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and everyone living in the land to the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD!"

Unto thee, O Yahweh, will I cry, - for, a fire, hath consumed the pastures of the wilderness, and, a flame, hath set ablaze all the trees of the field.

For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to generation.

"Sound the ram's horn in Zion! Dedicate a fast and call for a solemn assembly!

Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah, and give not Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the people, Where is their God?

And everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD will be delivered. For as the LORD has said, "In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, the survivors whom the LORD is calling.'"

And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land:

I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it.

Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack!

Egypt shall be for a desolation, and Edom shall be for a desert of desolation from violence to the sons of Judah, because they poured out innocent blood in their land.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Damascus and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because they have trampled down Gilead with ironclad threshing sleds.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Gaza and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because they exiled the entire population, delivering them to Edom.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Tyre and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because they delivered the entire population to Edom, and did not remember their covenant with their relatives.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Edom and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because he pursued his brother with a sword, refusing to be compassionate. His anger was raging continuously; he kept up his unending wrath.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of the Ammonites and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their national borders.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Judah and now for a fourth I will not turn away; because they rejected the Law of the LORD and did not keep his statutes. Their own lies made them wander off, following along the same path their ancestors walked.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all?

So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel.

Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

Therefore is the wise at that time silent, For an evil time it is.

For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.

This is what my Lord Yahweh showed me, and look, my Lord Yahweh was going to call for a legal case with fire, and it devoured the great deep and it ate up the plots of ground.

Don't prophesy at Bethel any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!"

You say, "When will the new moon festival be over, so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, so we can open up the grain bins? We're eager to sell less for a higher price, and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

People will stagger from sea to sea, from north to east. They will run back and forth, searching for a message from the LORD, but they won't find it.

“For behold, I am commanding,
And I shall shake and sift the house of Israel among all nations [and cause it to tremble]
Like grain is shaken in a sieve [removing the chaff],
But not a kernel [of the faithful remnant] shall fall to the ground and be lost [from My sight].

For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

And the house of Jacob was a fire, and the house of Joseph for a flame, and the house of Esau for straw; and they burned in them, and they devoured them; and a survivor shall not be to the house of Esau, for Jehovah spake.

And the exiles of this host of the sons (descendants) of Israel
Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the Negev.

And the men fear a great fear, and say unto him, 'What is this thou hast done!' for the men have known that from the face of Jehovah he is fleeing, for he hath told them.

The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least important.

Hear, O peoples, all of them! Attend, O earth, and its fulness, And the Lord Jehovah is against you for a witness, The Lord from His holy temple.

And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.

And I have set Samaria for a heap of the field, For plantations of a vineyard, And poured out into a valley her stones, And her foundations I uncover.

All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;
all her wages will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute,
they will be used again for a prostitute.

For her wound is incurable
and has reached even Judah;
it has approached the gate of my people,
as far as Jerusalem.

Therefore, shalt thou give a dismission, against Moresheth-gath, - The houses of Achzib, served for a deception to the kings of Israel.

The time shall yet be when, the heir, I will bring unto thee, O inhabitress of Mareshah, - as far as Adullam, shall enter the glory of Israel.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am devising against this family evil, From which ye do not remove your necks, Nor walk loftily, for a time of evil it is.

And yesterday My people for an enemy doth raise himself up, From the outer garment the honourable ornament ye strip off, From the confident passers by, Ye who are turning back from war.

You eat the flesh of my people, flaying their skin from them. You break their bones, chopping them in pieces like meat for a pot, like meat destined for a soup kettle.'

Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they lean, saying, 'Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us.'

And I have set the halting for a remnant, And the far-off for a mighty nation, And reigned hath Jehovah over them in mount Zion, From henceforth, and unto the age.

Thou, therefore, O Migdal-eder, mound of the daughter of Zion, as far as thee, shall it come, - so shall arrive the chief dominion, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

Be in labour, and bear, O daughter of Zion, as a woman in child-birth, - for, meanwhile, shalt thou go forth out of the city, and dwell in the field, and shalt come as far as Babylon, there, shalt thou be delivered, there, will Yahweh, redeem thee, out of the grasp of thine enemies.

In the meanwhile he plagueth them for a season, until the time that she which shall bear have born: then shall the remnant of his brethren be converted unto the children of Israel.

He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord's strength, by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored even in the distant regions of the earth.

And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many nations, like dew from Yahweh, like showers upon the grass which does not wait for a man, nor delays for the children of humankind.

Hear, O mountains, the strife of Jehovah, Ye strong ones -- foundations of earth! For a strife is to Jehovah, with His people, And with Israel He doth reason.

O my people! remember, I pray you, what Balak king of Moab, counseled, and what Balaam son of Beer, answered him, - from the Acacias as far as Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of Yahweh.

And kept habitually are the statutes of Omri, And all the work of the house of Ahab, And ye do walk in their counsels, For My giving thee for a desolation, And its inhabitants for a hissing, And the reproach of My people ye do bear!

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

For a son is dishonouring a father, A daughter hath stood against her mother, A daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, The enemies of each are the men of his house.

And see doth mine enemy, And cover her doth shame, Who saith unto me, 'Where is Jehovah thy God?' Mine eyes do look on her, Now she is for a treading-place, As mire of the out-places.

In that day people will come to you from Assyria as far as Egypt, from Egypt as far as the Euphrates River, from the seacoasts and the mountains.

And the land hath been for a desolation, Because of its inhabitants, Because of the fruit of their doings.

Good is Jehovah for a strong place in a day of distress. And He knoweth those trusting in Him.

For as thorns are woven together, and as their drunkards are drunken, they shall be devoured like stubble fully dry.

And you will be overcome with wine, you will become feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who are fighting against you.

Draw water for a [long, continued] siege!
Strengthen your fortresses!
Go down to the clay pits, trample the mortar!
Prepare the brick kiln [to burn bricks for the rampart]!

Look ye on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, Ye do not believe though it is declared.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Do not thy usurers instantly rise up, And those shaking thee awake up, And thou hast been for a spoil to them?

For a stone from the wall doth cry out, And a holdfast from the wood answereth it.

I have heard, and my belly trembleth, At the noise have my lips quivered, Rottenness doth come into my bones, And in my place I do tremble, That I rest for a day of distress, At the coming up of the people, he overcometh it.

And their wealth hath been for a spoil, And their houses for desolation, And they have built houses, and do not inhabit, And they have planted vineyards, And they do not drink their wine.

their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them, in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for a full end, yea, a sudden end, shall he make of all them that dwell in the land.

For Gaza is forsaken, And Ashkelon is for a desolation, Ashdod! at noon they do cast her forth, And Ekron is rooted up.