For behold, the LORD cometh forth from his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with the fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate: for she gathered it from the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.

For her wound is incurable; for it is come to Judah; he is come to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good: but evil came down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.

O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.

The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a grievous destruction.

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?

Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

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.

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

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.

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

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain to JEHOVAH, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

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 the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD'S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

For I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee from the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

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 good man hath perished from the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he shall plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell in it, for the fruit of their doings.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

Who is a God like to thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.