When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

The LORD will go to court to oppose the elders and princes of his people: "You're the ones who have been devouring the vineyard, the plunder of the poor is in your own houses!

How dare you crush my people as you grind down the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

With a roar like a lion, they snarl, and like young lions, they growl; they seize their prey and then carry it off, with no one to rescue.

After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the LORD told me, "Call him "Maher-shalal-hash-baz,'

Now as to the yoke that has been his burden, and the bar laid on his shoulder the rod of his oppressor you have broken it as on the day of Midian.

to deprive the needy of justice and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may become their spoil and so that they may plunder orphans!

Cry aloud, you daughter of Gallim! Pay attention, Laish! Poor Anathoth!

Behold, the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will lop off its boughs with terrifying power; the tallest in height will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

"A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch will bear fruit from his roots.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

but with righteousness he will judge the needy, and decide with equity for earth's poor. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and the wicked will be killed with the breath of his lips.

The cow and the bear will graze, and their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

"Raise a banner on a bare hilltop! Cry out loud to them! Give a wave of the hand, signaling for them to enter the gates of the nobles.

I'll make people scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than gold from Ophir.

The firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety; but I'll kill your root by famine, and I'll execute your survivors.

For the cry has gone out along the border of Moab; her wailing reaches as far as Eglaim, her wailing reaches as far as Beer-elim.

When Moab appears, when he arrives upon the high place and comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail."

And they will all be left for birds of prey that live on the mountains and for wild animals. Birds of prey will pass the summer feeding on them, and all the wild animals will pass the winter feeding on them.

I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

When he sees chariots, each man with a pair of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him pay attention, full attention."

Look! Here come riders, each man with a pair of horses!" They're shouting out the answer: "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and they have shattered all the images of her gods on the ground!

"Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is a people that no longer exist; Assyria destined her for desert creatures. They raised up her siege towers, they stripped her fortresses bare and turned her into a ruin.

No longer do they drink wine accompanied by singing; even beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.

For you have been a stronghold for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat for the blistering attack from the ruthless is like a rainstorm beating against a wall,

For the LORD's power will rest on this mountain, but the Moabites will be trodden down beneath him, just as straw is trodden down in the slime of a manure pit.

For the fortified city stands desolate, a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert; calves graze there, and there they lie down and strip bare its branches.

For the Fire Pit has long been prepared; truly it is for the king; it will indeed be made ready. And its pyre will be deep and wide, with abundant fire and wood. Like a stream of burning sulfur, the breath of the LORD will set it ablaze.

For this is what the LORD told me: "Just as a lion or a young lion growls over his objects of prey, even when a whole band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not alarmed at their shouting or disturbed by their clamor so the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill.

Furthermore, the crimes of bad people are evil; and they devise wicked schemes, destroying the poor with lying words, even when needy people plead a just cause.

"Those who are far away have heard what I've done; and those that are near have acknowledged my power.

Their inhabitants are devoid of power, and are terrified and put to shame. They've become like plants in the field, like green shoots, like grass on rooftops, scorched by the east wind.

Then the ones belonging to the house of Judah who have escaped will gather, and those who are found will take root downward and bear fruit upward.

I've been swept bare until morning; just like a lion, he breaks all my bones day and night you make an end of me.

"As for the poor, the needy, those seeking water when there is none and their tongues are parched from thirst I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, won't abandon them.

But this is a people who have been robbed and plundered, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become prey, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, "Send them back!'

For I'll pour water upon thirsty ground and streams on parched land. So will I pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants.

Even until your old age, I am the one, and I'll carry you even until your gray hairs come. It is I who have created, and I who will carry, and it is I who will bear and save.

Those who pour out gold in a purse, weigh silver in a balance, hire a goldsmith in order to make a god, and then they bow down and even worship it.

I am calling a bird of prey from the east, and from a far country a man with his purpose. Indeed, I've spoken; I will certainly make it happen; I've planned it; and I will certainly carry it out.

Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, strip off your robes, bare your legs, and wade through the rivers.

Both of these things will overtake you suddenly on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, despite the multitude of your incantations and the great power of your spells."

"See, they are just like stubble; fire burns them up. They could not even save themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals for warming oneself, no fire to sit by.

Then you'll ask in your heart, "Who bore these children for me, although I was childless and barren, and an exile and cast aside? Who brought these up? Look! For my part I was left all alone; but as for these, where have they come from?'

There is no one to guide you out of all the children she bore, no one to take her by the hand out of all the children she brought up.

Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light and find satisfaction. And through his knowledge his servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities.

"Sing, you barren woman, even the one who never bore a child! Burst into song and shout for joy, even you who were never in labor! For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married," says the LORD.

Isn't it to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him with clothing, and not to raise yourself up from your own flesh and blood?"

if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the needs of afflicted souls, then your light will rise in darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey." "Then the LORD looked, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

They won't toil in vain nor bear children doomed to misfortune, for they will be offspring blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.