I will break down the gates of Damascus.
I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who wields the scepter from Beth-eden.
The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir.
The Lord has spoken.

I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod,
and the one who wields the scepter from Ashkelon.
I will also turn My hand against Ekron,
and the remainder of the Philistines will perish.
The Lord God has spoken.

I will cut off the judge from the land
and kill all its officials with him.
The Lord has spoken.

They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken as collateral,
and in the house of their God,
they drink wine obtained through fines.

Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
without revealing His counsel
to His servants the prophets.

A lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who will not prophesy?

Therefore, the Lord God says:

An enemy will surround the land;
he will destroy your strongholds
and plunder your citadels.

Listen and testify against the house of Jacob—
this is the declaration of the Lord God,
the God of Hosts.

I will punish the altars of Bethel
on the day I punish Israel for its crimes;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.

The Lord God has sworn by His holiness:

Look, the days are coming
when you will be taken away with hooks,
every last one of you with fishhooks.

Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,
and since I will do that to you,
Israel, prepare to meet your God!

He is here:
the One who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals His thoughts to man,
the One who makes the dawn out of darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth.
Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name.

For the Lord God says:

The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left in the house of Israel.

They hate the one who convicts the guilty
at the city gate
and despise the one who speaks with integrity.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.

Seek good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the Lord, the God of Hosts,
will be with you,
as you have claimed.

Hate evil and love good;
establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore Yahweh, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;
they will cry out in anguish in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,
and professional mourners to wail.

But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves.

So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name. He has spoken.

The Lord God has sworn by Himself—this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of Hosts:

I loathe Jacob’s pride
and hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.

But look, I am raising up a nation
against you, house of Israel—
this is the declaration of the Lord,
the God of Hosts—
and they will oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath
to the Brook of the Arabah.

The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout—after the cutting of the king’s hay.

When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?”

The Lord relented concerning this. “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.

The Lord God showed me this: A basket of summer fruit.

In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence!”

And in that day—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
I will make the sun go down at noon;
I will darken the land in the daytime.

Hear this! The days are coming—
this is the declaration of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
or “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
they will fall, never to rise again.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said:

Strike the capitals of the pillars
so that the thresholds shake;
knock them down on the heads of all the people.
Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword.
None of those who flee will get away;
none of the fugitives will escape.

And if they are driven
by their enemies into captivity,
from there I will command
the sword to kill them.
I will fix My eyes on them
for harm and not for good.

The Lord, the God of Hosts—
He touches the earth;
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.

Look, the eyes of the Lord God
are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
However, I will not totally destroy
the house of Jacob—
this is the Lord’s declaration—

I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
Yahweh your God has spoken.