Even the bravest of elite troops will run away naked at that time," declares the LORD.

"Listen to this message that the LORD has spoken about you, people of Israel. It concerns the entire family that I brought from the land of Egypt:

Because they do not know how to act right," declares the LORD, "they are filling their strongholds with treasures that they took from others by violence into their fortified citadels."

"because on that day I will lay out the charges against Israel. I will also bring judgment upon the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and will fall to the ground.

"I therefore have withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest, causing rain to come upon one city, but not upon another, and upon one field but not upon another, so that it would wither.

"Hear this accusation that I am bringing against you: "A dirge, house of Israel:

"For this is what the Lord GOD says: "The city that is sending out a thousand will have a hundred left; The city that is sending out a hundred will have ten left of the house of Israel.'"

It is he who is raining sudden destruction upon the strong like lightning, so that ruin comes upon the fortress.

and because I know that your transgressions are many, and your sins are numerous as you oppose the righteous, taking bribes as a ransom, and turning away the poor in court

"Pursue good and not evil, so that you may live, and this is what will happen: The LORD God of the Heavenly Armies will be with you, as you have been claiming.

Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness, and not light pitch black at that, without a ray of sunshine?"

"Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel?

And you carried the tent of your king and Saturn, your star god idols that you crafted for yourselves.

Cross over to Calneh and look around, then go on to that great city of Hamath, and from there go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory more extensive than yours?

"Disbelieving that a day of evil will come, embracing opportunities to commit violence,

You rejoice in nothing worth mentioning that is, you keep on saying, "We captured Karnaim by our own strength of will and by our own effort, didn't we?'

And so it came about that when the swarm had finished eating the grass of the land, I was saying, "Lord GOD, forgive please! How will Jacob stand, since he is small?"

This is what he showed me: Look! The Lord was standing upon a wall that stood straight and true, with a plumb line in his hand.

At that time," declares the Lord GOD, "the temple songs will be wailing. Many bodies will accumulate everywhere.

It will come about at that time," declares the Lord GOD, "I will cause the sun to set at noon and the earth to darken in the daylight.

I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all of your songs to dirges. I will cause all of you to put on sackcloth and to shave all of your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son, and its conclusion will be like the end of a bitter day."

At that time, the beautiful virgins will faint, as will the strong young men from thirst.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar as he was saying, "Strike the doorposts so that the thresholds tremble, bringing them down on the heads of all of them. Those who survive I will kill with the sword. Those who flee will not escape. There will be no deliverance for the fugitives.

"The Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies who is touching the earth so that it melts and all of its inhabitants mourn there the land rises like the Nile River, but sinks like the river of Egypt

"At that time I will restore David's fallen tent, restoring its torn places. I will restore its ruins, rebuilding it as it was long ago,

so my people may inherit the remnant of Edom and all of the nations that bear my name," declares the LORD who is bringing this about.

I will plant the people of Israel in their own land, never again to be torn out of their land that I gave them," says the LORD your God.