Listen, heavens, and pay attention, earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“I have raised children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against Me.

Oh sinful nation,
people weighed down with iniquity,
brood of evildoers,
depraved children!
They have abandoned the Lord;
they have despised the Holy One of Israel;
they have turned their backs on Him.

I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals.
They have become a burden to Me;
I am tired of putting up with them.

“Come, let us discuss this,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are as red as crimson,
they will be like wool.

Your rulers are rebels,
friends of thieves.
They all love graft
and chase after bribes.
They do not defend the rights of the fatherless,
and the widow’s case never comes before them.

I will restore your judges to what they once were,
and your advisers to their former state.
Afterward you will be called the Righteous City,
a Faithful City.”

Indeed, they will be ashamed of the sacred trees
you desired,
and you will be embarrassed because of the gardens
you have chosen.

He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will turn their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,
and they will never again train for war.

For You have abandoned Your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of divination from the East
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines.
They are in league with foreigners.

Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.

On that day people will throw
their silver and gold idols,
which they made to worship,
to the moles and the bats.

They will go into the caves of the rocks
and the crevices in the cliffs,
away from the terror of the Lord
and from His majestic splendor,
when He rises to terrify the earth.

For Jerusalem has stumbled
and Judah has fallen
because they have spoken and acted against the Lord,
defying His glorious presence.

The look on their faces testifies against them,
and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin.
They do not conceal it.
Woe to them,
for they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the righteous that it will go well for them,
for they will eat the fruit of their labor.

Woe to the wicked—it will go badly for them,
for what they have done will be done to them.

Youths oppress My people,
and women rule over them.
My people, your leaders mislead you;
they confuse the direction of your paths.

At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,
and they do not see the work of His hands.

Therefore My people will go into exile
because they lack knowledge;
her dignitaries are starving,
and her masses are parched with thirst.

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw
and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will become like something rotten
and their blossoms will blow away like dust,
for they have rejected
the instruction of the Lord of Hosts,
and they have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.

He raises a signal flag for the distant nations
and whistles for them from the ends of the earth.
Look—how quickly and swiftly they come!

Their roaring is like a lion’s;
they roar like young lions;
they growl and seize their prey
and carry it off,
and no one can rescue it.

On that day they will roar over it,
like the roaring of the sea.
When one looks at the land,
there will be darkness and distress;
light will be obscured by clouds.

Dull the minds of these people;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.

For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say,

and from the abundant milk they give
he will eat butter,
for every survivor in the land will eat butter and honey.

Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.

Many will stumble over these;
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.

When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.
The people have rejoiced before You
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

All the people—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—will know it.
They will say with pride and arrogance:

The people did not turn to Him who struck them;
they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.

The leaders of the people mislead them,
and those they mislead are swallowed up.

For wickedness burns like a fire
that consumes thorns and briers
and kindles the forest thickets
so that they go up in a column of smoke.

They carve meat on the right,
but they are still hungry;
they have eaten on the left,
but they are still not satisfied.
Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.

to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice,
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.

On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

They crossed over at the ford, saying,
“We will spend the night at Geba.”
The people of Ramah are trembling;
those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

But they will swoop down
on the Philistine flank to the west.
Together they will plunder the people of the east.
They will extend their power over Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
who will survive from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.
Call out to them.
Wave your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.

They are coming from a far land,
from the distant horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.

They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.

Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.

The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.

They all respond to you, saying:
“You too have become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!

Those who see you will stare at you;
they will look closely at you:
“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,

Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,
because of the iniquity of their fathers.
They will never rise up to possess a land
or fill the surface of the earth with cities.

In its streets they wear sackcloth;
on its rooftops and in its public squares everyone wails,
falling down and weeping.

Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out,
and they tremble.

My heart cries out over Moab,
whose fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah;
they go up the slope of Luhith weeping;
they raise a cry of destruction
on the road to Horonaim.

So they carry their wealth and belongings
over the Wadi of the Willows.

The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they will be places for flocks.
They will lie down without fear.

They will not look to the altars they made with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they made with their fingers.

Ah! The roar of many peoples—
they roar like the roaring of the seas.
The raging of the nations—
they rage like the raging of mighty waters.

The nations rage like the raging of many waters.
He rebukes them, and they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills
and like tumbleweeds before a gale.

They will all be left for the birds of prey on the hills
and for the wild animals of the land.
The birds will spend the summer on them,
and all the animals, the winter on them.

Egypt’s spirit will be disturbed within it,
and I will frustrate its plans.
Then they will seek idols, ghosts,
spirits of the dead, and spiritists.

The channels will stink;
they will dwindle, and Egypt’s canals will be parched.
Reed and rush will die.

It will be a sign and witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, He will send them a savior and leader, and he will rescue them.

The Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and Egypt will know the Lord on that day. They will offer sacrifices and offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and fulfill them.

The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing. Then they will return to the Lord and He will hear their prayers and heal them.

For they have fled from swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bow that is strung,
and from the stress of battle.

The noisy city, the jubilant town,
is filled with revelry.
Your dead did not die by the sword;
they were not killed in battle.

All your rulers have fled together,
captured without a bow.
All your fugitives were captured together;
they had fled far away.

They will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the small vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

When the news reaches Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the news about Tyre.

Look at the land of the Chaldeans—
a people who no longer exist.
Assyria destined it for desert creatures.
They set up their siege towers
and stripped its palaces.
They made it a ruin.

But her profits and wages will be dedicated to the Lord. They will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live in the Lord’s presence, to provide them with ample food and sacred clothing.

The earth is polluted by its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed teachings,
overstepped decrees,
and broken the everlasting covenant.

They no longer sing and drink wine;
beer is bitter to those who drink it.

In the streets they cry for wine.
All joy grows dark;
earth’s rejoicing goes into exile.

They raise their voices, they sing out;
they proclaim in the west
the majesty of the Lord.

They will be gathered together
like prisoners in a pit.
They will be confined to a dungeon;
after many days they will be punished.

Lord, Your hand is lifted up to take action,
but they do not see it.
They will see Your zeal for Your people,
and they will be put to shame.
The fire for Your adversaries will consume them!

Lord, they went to You in their distress;
they poured out whispered prayers
because Your discipline fell on them.

For the fortified city will be deserted,
pastures abandoned and forsaken like a wilderness.
Calves will graze there,
and there they will spread out and strip its branches.

When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.
Women will come and make fires with them,
for they are not a people with understanding.
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them,
and their Creator will not be gracious to them.

On that day
a great trumpet will be blown,
and those lost in the land of Assyria will come,
as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt;
and they will worship the Lord
at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.

These also stagger because of wine
and stumble under the influence of beer:
priest and prophet stagger because of beer,
they are confused by wine.
They stumble because of beer,
they are muddled in their visions,
they stumble in their judgments.

He had said to them:
“This is the place of rest,
let the weary rest;
this is the place of repose.”
But they would not listen.

Then the word of the Lord came to them:
“Law after law, law after law,
line after line, line after line,
a little here, a little there,”
so they go stumbling backward,
to be broken, trapped, and captured.

Stop and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
they stagger, but not with beer.

Woe to those who go to great lengths
to hide their plans from the Lord.
They do their works in darkness,
and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

For when he sees his children,
the work of My hands within his nation,
they will honor My name,
they will honor the Holy One of Jacob
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Woe to the rebellious children!
This is the Lord’s declaration.
They carry out a plan, but not Mine;
they make an alliance,
but against My will,
piling sin on top of sin.

They set out to go down to Egypt
without asking My advice,
in order to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection
and take refuge in Egypt’s shadow.

everyone will be ashamed
because of a people who can’t help.
They are of no benefit, they are no help;
they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.

An oracle about the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of trouble and distress,
of lioness and lion,
of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people who will not help them.

They are a rebellious people,
deceptive children,
children who do not want to obey the Lord’s instruction.

They say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy the truth to us.
Tell us flattering things.
Prophesy illusions.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and who depend on horses!
They trust in the abundance of chariots
and in the large number of horsemen.
They do not look to the Holy One of Israel
and they do not seek the Lord’s help.

Woe, you destroyer never destroyed,
you traitor never betrayed!
When you have finished destroying,
you will be destroyed.
When you have finished betraying,
they will betray you.

Your ropes are slack;
they cannot hold the base of the mast
or spread out the flag.
Then abundant spoil will be divided,
the lame will plunder it,

He has ordained a lot for them;
His hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever;
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

It will blossom abundantly
and will also rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.

There will be no lion there,
and no vicious beast will go up on it;
they will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk on it,