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

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.

O you that are named the house of Jacob : Is the spirit of the LORD restricted? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?

Even of late my people have risen up as an enemy: you pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by trustingly, as men returning from war.

The women of my people have you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have you taken away my glory forever.

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.

Thus says the LORD : Concerning the prophets who make my people stray, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that puts nothing into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

O my people, what have I done unto you? and in what have I wearied you? testify against me.

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

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

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing: therefore you 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.

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asks, and the judge asks for a bribe; and the great man, he utters his evil desire: so they weave it together.

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

Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

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

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