Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke my sentence, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gazah, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.

This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of Moab because they cremated the bones of the king of Edom, burning them to lime.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have despised the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes; and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers walked.

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;

They tread upon poor men's heads, in the dust of the earth, and crook the ways of the meek. The son and the father go to the harlot, to dishonour my holy name,

And they lay themselves down by every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, and they drink in the house of their God the wine of the condemned.

For Israel's sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground.

May twain walk together except they be agreed among themselves?

Cry they out Alarum with the trumpet in the city, and the people not afraid? Cometh there any plague in a city without it be the LORD's doing?

"'Preach in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say, 'Gather you together upon the mountains of Samaria, so shall ye see great murder and violent oppression among them.' For why? They regard not the thing that is right,

sayeth the LORD: they gather together evil gotten goods, and lay up robbery in their houses.'

This is what the Lord says: "Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion's mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged. They will be left with just a corner of a bed, and a part of a couch."

For in the day of My charging the transgressions of Israel on him, I have laid a charge on the altars of Beth-El, And cut off have been the horns of the altar, And they have fallen to the earth.

Lord LORD has sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks.

Wherefore two, yea three cities came unto one, to drink water: but they were not satisfied. Yet will ye not turn unto me,' sayeth the LORD.

The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.

But they owe him evil will, that reproveth them openly: and whoso telleth them the plain truth, they abhor him.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

"'If no,' sayeth the LORD God, the God of hosts, 'there shall be mourning in all streets. Yea, they shall say in every street: alas, alas. They shall call the husbandman to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.

O Woe be to the proud wealthy in Zion, to such as think them so sure upon the mount of Samaria: which hold themselves for the best of the world, and rule the house of Israel, even as they list.

Go unto Calneh, and see: and from thence get you to Hamath the great city, and so go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better at ease than these kingdoms, or the border of their land wider than yours?

They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,
sprawled out on their couches,
and dine on lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall.

Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music;

That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Therefore now they remove at the head of the captives, And turned aside is the mourning-feast of stretched-out ones.

so that though there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

So their next kinfolks and the dead buriers shall take them, and carry away their bones, and say unto him that is in the innermore house, 'Is there yet any more by thee?' And he shall answer, 'They are all gone. Hold thy tongue,' shall he say. For they would not remember the name of the LORD.

Behold, the LORD is minded to smite the great houses, so that they shall decay: and the little houses, that they shall cleave asunder.

"Horses don't run over bare rock, do they? One doesn't plow rock with oxen, does he? But you have turned justice to gall, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.

Surely, lo, I am raising against you a nation, O house of Israel, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts, And they have oppressed you from the coming in to Hamath, Unto the stream of the desert.

Now when they undertook to eat up all the green things in the land, I said, "O LORD God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low?"

And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

"The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: I will never forget anything they have done.

Shall not the land tremble; and all they that dwell therein, mourn for this? Shall not their destruction come upon them like a water stream; and flow over them, as the flood of Egypt?

Your high feasts will I turn to sorrow, and your songs to mourning: I will bring sackcloth upon all backs, and baldness on every head. Yea, such a mourning will I send them, as is made upon an only begotten son, and they shall have a miserable end.

And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find.

Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen -- and rise not again!'

I saw the LORD standing upon the altar, and he said, "Smite the door check, that the posts may shake withal. For their covetousness shall fall upon all their heads, and their posterity shall be slain with the sword. They shall not flee away, there shall not one of them escape, nor be delivered.

If they dig through into sheol, From thence doth My hand take them, And if they go up the heavens, From thence I cause them to come down.

And if they be hid in the top of Carmel, From thence I search out, and have taken them, And if they be hid from Mine eyes in the bottom of the sea, From thence I command the serpent, And it hath bitten them.

And if they go into captivity before their enemies, From thence I command the sword, And it hath slain them, And I have set Mine eye on them for evil, And not for good.

For when the LORD God of hosts toucheth a land, it consumeth away, and all they that dwell therein, must needs mourn: And why? Their destruction shall arise as every stream and run over them, as the flood in Egypt.

For lo, this I promise: though I sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as they use to sift in a sieve: yet shall not the smallest gravel stone fall upon the earth.

So that they possess the remnant of Edom, And all the nations on whom My name is called, An affirmation of Jehovah -- doer of this.

And I have turned back to the captivity of My people Israel, And they have built desolate cities, and inhabited, And have planted vineyards, and drunk their wine, And made gardens, and eaten their fruit.

And I have planted them on their own ground, And they are not plucked up any more from off their own ground, That I have given to them, said Jehovah thy God!