Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,' and the animals of the field shall eat them.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'My God!'"

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God's law, I will also forget your children.

They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

"Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.

They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.

Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.

They don't consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.

For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn't realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn't realize it.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven't returned to Yahweh their God, nor sought him, for all this.

Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

They haven't cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.

"Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh's house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn't approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.

For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.

The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we don't fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?"

"Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn't overtake them in Gibeah.

You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."

I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.

I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.

Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green fir tree; from me your fruit is found."

Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed.

I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,

and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.

Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head;

Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion."

Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.

Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh's law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;

Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;

and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

"You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins."

Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?

I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end," says Yahweh.

"I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.

"I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn't rain withered.

So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.

"I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.

"I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.

"I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."

Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, 'Haven't we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'

Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land.

Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?" says Yahweh. "Haven't I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them," says Yahweh your God.

The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle.

Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him."

For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them.

Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, "We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don't let us die for this man's life, and don't lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you."

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh."

Yahweh said, "You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.

Don't tell it in Gath. Don't weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!

Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.

But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle.

"In that day," says Yahweh, "I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?

Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion."

I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers.

Listen now to what Yahweh says: "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!

Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see his righteousness.

He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

Thus says Yahweh: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.