All this is because of Jacob's rebellion and the sins of the nation of Israel. How has Jacob rebelled, you ask? Samaria epitomizes their rebellion! Where are Judah's pagan worship centers, you ask? They are right in Jerusalem!

And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces. And all her wages shall be burned with fire, and I will lay desolate all her idols. For she has gathered them from the wages of a harlot, and to the wage of a harlot they shall r

For her wounds are incurable. For it has come even to Judah. it reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not come forth. The wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay of it.

For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.

"You inhabitants of Lachish, harness your chariot to your swiftest steed the daughter of Zion has begun to sin because within you the transgressions of Israel were revealed.

For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.

In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly ruined: he has changed the portion of my people: how he has removed it from me! turning away he has divided our fields.

Therefore, thou hast no caster of a line by lot In the assembly of Jehovah.

‘Do not speak out,’ so they speak out.
But if they do not speak out concerning these things,
Reproaches will not be turned back.

Even yesterday, My people has risen up like an enemy; you strip off a cloak along with an outer robe, from those who pass by trustingly, those returning from war.

Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you.

The breaker has gone up before them. They have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and have gone out there. And their king has passed on before them, and LORD at the head of them.

This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid. For the mouth of LORD of hosts has spoken it.

In that day, says the Lord, I will get together her who goes with uncertain steps, I will get together her who has been sent away, and her on whom I have sent evil;

Now why do thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee. Has thy counselor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?

Be pained, and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, As a travailing woman, For now, thou goest forth from the city, And thou hast dwelt in the field, And thou hast gone unto Babylon, There thou art delivered, There redeem thee doth Jehovah from the hand of thine enemies.

But they know not the thoughts of LORD, nor do they understand his counsel, for he has gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.

Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion, For thy horn I make iron, And thy hoofs I make brass, And thou hast beaten small many peoples, And I have devoted to Jehovah their gain, And their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth!

Now thou shall gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the families of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time past, from the eternal days.

Therefore he will give them up until the time that she who travails has brought forth. Then the residue of his brothers shall return to the sons of Israel.

And have cut off sorcerers out of thy hand, And observers of clouds thou hast none.

Hear, O ye mountains, LORD's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth, for LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, how Balaam son of Beor responded to him. Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal, so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly."

He has shown thee, O man, what is good. And what does LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?

The voice of LORD cries to the city, and [the man of] wisdom will see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who has appointed it.

How sad for me!
For I am like one who—
when the summer fruit has been gathered
after the gleaning of the grape harvest—
finds no grape cluster to eat,
no early fig, which I crave.

The devout man has perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lay in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net.

The best of them is as a brier. The most upright is [worse] than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, has come. Now shall be their perplexity.

Thou shalt keep thy trust with Jacob, and thy mercy for Abraham, like as thou hast sworn unto our fathers long ago.