Listen, all you nations! Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! The sovereign Lord will testify against you; the Lord will accuse you from his majestic palace.

Look, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling place! He will descend and march on the earth's mountaintops!

The mountains will disintegrate beneath him, and the valleys will be split in two. The mountains will melt like wax in a fire, the rocks will slide down like water cascading down a steep slope.

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!

"I will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins in an open field -- vineyards will be planted there! I will tumble the rubble of her stone walls down into the valley, and tear down her fortifications to their foundations.

All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces; all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. I will make a waste heap of all her images. Since she gathered the metal as a prostitute collects her wages, the idols will become a prostitute's wages again."

For this reason I will mourn and wail; I will walk around barefoot and without my outer garments. I will howl like a wild dog, and screech like an owl.

Therefore you will have to say farewell to Moresheth Gath. The residents of Achzib will be as disappointing as a dried up well to the kings of Israel.

Residents of Mareshah, a conqueror will attack you, the leaders of Israel shall flee to Adullam.

Therefore the Lord says this: "Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of catastrophe.

In that day people will sing this taunt song to you -- they will mock you with this lament: 'We are completely destroyed; they sell off the property of my people. How they remove it from me! They assign our fields to the conqueror.'

Therefore no one will assign you land in the Lord's community.

Don't preach with such impassioned rhetoric,' they say excitedly. 'These prophets should not preach of such things; we will not be overtaken by humiliation.'

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! For this land is not secure! Sin will thoroughly destroy it!

I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob, I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of a pasture; they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise.

The one who can break through barriers will lead them out they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. Their king will advance before them, The Lord himself will lead them.

Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds."

Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.

The prophets will be ashamed; the omen readers will be humiliated. All of them will cover their mouths, for they will receive no divine oracles."

Listen to this, you leaders of the family of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You hate justice and pervert all that is right.

Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the Lord and say, "The Lord is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!"

Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed up like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a hill overgrown with brush!

In the future the Lord's Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it.

Many nations will come, saying, "Come on! Let's go up to the Lord's mountain, to the temple of Jacob's God, so he can teach us his commands and we can live by his laws." For Zion will be the source of instruction; the Lord's teachings will proceed from Jerusalem.

He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.

Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear. The Lord who commands armies has decreed it.

Though all the nations follow their respective gods, we will follow the Lord our God forever.

"In that day," says the Lord, "I will gather the lame, and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.

I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, and those far off into a mighty nation. The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion, from that day forward and forevermore."

As for you, watchtower for the flock, fortress of Daughter Zion -- your former dominion will be restored, the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver you from the power of your enemies.

"Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion! For I will give you iron horns; I will give you bronze hooves, and you will crush many nations." You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them, and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.

As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah -- from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past.

So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth. Then the rest of the king's countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel.

He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord's strength, by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored even in the distant regions of the earth.

He will give us peace. Should the Assyrians try to invade our land and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, we will send against them seven shepherd-rulers, make that eight commanders.

They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with a drawn sword. Our king will rescue us from the Assyrians should they attempt to invade our land and try to set foot in our territory.

Those survivors from Jacob will live in the midst of many nations. They will be like the dew the Lord sends, like the rain on the grass, that does not hope for men to come or wait around for humans to arrive.

Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations, in the midst of many peoples. They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which attacks when it passes through; it rips its prey and there is no one to stop it.

Lift your hand triumphantly against your adversaries; may all your enemies be destroyed!

"In that day," says the Lord, "I will destroy your horses from your midst, and smash your chariots.

I will destroy the cities of your land, and tear down all your fortresses.

I will remove the sorcery that you practice, and you will no longer have omen readers living among you.

I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst; you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

I will uproot your images of Asherah from your midst, and destroy your idols.

I will angrily seek vengeance on the nations that do not obey me."

Will the Lord accept a thousand rams, or ten thousand streams of olive oil? Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion, my offspring -- my own flesh and blood -- for my sin?

"I will not overlook, O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much.

I will strike you brutally and destroy you because of your sin.

You will eat, but not be satisfied. Even if you have the strength to overtake some prey, you will not be able to carry it away; if you do happen to carry away something, I will deliver it over to the sword.

You will plant crops, but will not harvest them; you will squeeze oil from the olives, but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink.

You implement the regulations of Omri, and all the practices of Ahab's dynasty; you follow their policies. Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, the city's inhabitants will be taunted derisively, and nations will mock all of you."

Faithful men have disappeared from the land; there are no godly men left. They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; they hunt their own brother with a net.

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; government officials and judges take bribes, prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them.

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen -- your appointed time of punishment -- is on the way, and then you will experience confusion.

But I will keep watching for the Lord; I will wait for the God who delivers me. My God will hear my lament.

My enemies, do not gloat over me! Though I have fallen, I will get up. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

I must endure the Lord's anger, for I have sinned against him. But then he will defend my cause, and accomplish justice on my behalf. He will lead me out into the light; I will experience firsthand his deliverance.

When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame. They say to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" I will gloat over them. Then they will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

It will be a day for rebuilding your walls; in that day your boundary will be extended.

In that day people will come to you from Assyria as far as Egypt, from Egypt as far as the Euphrates River, from the seacoasts and the mountains.

The earth will become desolate because of what its inhabitants have done.

Shepherd your people with your shepherd's rod, the flock that belongs to you, the one that lives alone in a thicket, in the midst of a pastureland. Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, as they did in the old days.

"As in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt, I will show you miraculous deeds."

Nations will see this and be disappointed by all their strength, they will put their hands over their mouths, and act as if they were deaf.

They will lick the dust like a snake, like serpents crawling on the ground. They will come trembling from their strongholds to the Lord our God; they will be terrified of you.

You will once again have mercy on us; you will conquer our evil deeds; you will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.

You will be loyal to Jacob and extend your loyal love to Abraham, which you promised on oath to our ancestors in ancient times.