And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment?

Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

Her heads judge for reward, and her priests teach for hire, and her prophets divine for money; yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us.

Now why dost thou cry aloud? is there no king in thee? hath thy counselor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth from the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies.

Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he will gather them as sheaves into the floor.

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

And he will stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now will he be great to the ends of the earth.

And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no more sooth-sayers:

Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands.

Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.

Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.

The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

Then she that is my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said to me, Where is the LORD thy God? my eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.