And he did to the strong fortifications with a strange god whom he recognized, he shall multiply honor: and he caused them to rule over many, and he will divide the land for a price.

As for me, I heard, but I did not understand; so I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

And many shall be separated and become white, and be tried; and the unjust did evil: and all the unjust shall not understand; and the intelligent shall understand.

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

There I will give her vineyards back to her
and make the Valley of Achor
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did
in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.

There is [false] swearing of oaths, deception (broken faith), murder, stealing, and adultery;
They employ violence, so that one [act of] bloodshed follows closely on another.

As they were magnified, so, they sinned against me, - My glory - for what was contemptible, did they exchange.

In that time of the plague shall Ephraim be laid waste, therefore did I faithfully warn the tribes of Israel.

But even like as Adam did, so have they broken my covenant, and set me at naught.

And, like liers in wait for a man, in troops, is a band of priests, on the road, will they murder towards Shechem, - because, a shameful deed, they have done.

As I healed to Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the evils of Shomeron: for they did falsehood, and the thief will come in, and the troop invaded without

{But they did not consider} that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.

They set kings in place, but not by me. They established princes, whom I did not recognize. They crafted idols for themselves from their silver and gold; as a result, they will be destroyed.

Indeed, they sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.

Because Ephraim did multiply altars to sin, They have been to him altars to sin.

They have corrupted themselves deeply, as did Gibeah in its day. Therefore God will remember their lawlessness, and he will pay them back for their sins.

As for Ephraim! like a bird, did their glory, fly away, - no birth, and none with child, no conception.

My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Israel was a goodly vine, but he hath brought forth unprofitable fruit: yea, the more fruit he had the more altars he made; the more good I did to their land, the more friendship showed they to their Images.

For now they will say, "We have no king; indeed, we did not fear Yahweh, and what can a king do for us?"

O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies: because you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

Thus did the house of God to you from the face of the evil of your evil: in the morning the king of Israel being cut off, was cut off.

Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
Taking them in My arms [nurturing the young nation];
But they did not know that I healed them.

How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity.

When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him.

I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

When I gave them food they were full, and their hearts were full of pride, and they did not keep me in mind.

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead)?
Shall I redeem them from death?
O death, where are your thorns?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from My eyes [because of their failure to repent].

What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly.

The grapevine is dried up,
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the date palm, and the apple—
all the trees of the orchard—have withered.
Indeed, human joy has dried up.

The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead.

“But I will remove the northern army far away from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
With its forward guard into the eastern sea (Dead Sea)
And with its rear guard into the western sea (Mediterranean Sea).
And its stench will arise and its foul odor of decay will come up [this is the fate of the northern army in the final day of the Lord],
For He has done great things.”

And I have recompensed to you the years That consume did the locust, the cankerworm, And the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, My great force that I did send against you.

And eating, ye ate and were satisfied, and ye praised the name of Jehovah your God who did wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed forever.

Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the [five small] regions of Philistia? Will you pay Me back for something [I have supposedly done to you]? Even if you do pay Me back, I will swiftly and speedily return your deed [of retaliation] on your own head.

behold, I am going to stir them up from the place where you have sold them [and return them to their land], and I shall return your action [of retaliation] on your own head.

Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom will become a {desolate desert}, because of the violence [they did] against the children of Judah, in whose land they have shed innocent blood.

And I have declared their blood innocent, That I did not declare innocent, And Jehovah is dwelling in Zion!

Thus says the Lord,
“For three transgressions of Tyre and for four (multiplied delinquencies)
I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it,
Because they [as middlemen] deported an entire [Jewish] population to Edom
And did not [seriously] remember their covenant of brotherhood.

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:

Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk:

You only did I know from all the families of the earth: for this I will review over you all your iniquities.

If the trumpet shall be struck in the city and the people not be terrified? if evil shall be in the city and Jehovah did not?

“I also gave you cleanness of teeth [because of the famine] in all your cities
And lack of bread in all your places,
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

“Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you
When there were still three months until the harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city,
And on another city I would not send rain;
One piece of ground was rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up.

“So [the people of] two or three cities would stagger into one city to drink water,
But would not be satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

“I wounded you with blight [from the hot, blasting east wind] and with mildew;
And the caterpillar devoured
Your many gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees;
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

“I sent a plague among you like [those of] Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword and I captured your horses,
I made the stench of your camp rise up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

“I overthrew and destroyed [some among] you, as [I, your] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were [rescued] like a log pulled out of the flame;
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

Because of Israel's sins this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says: "In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

So their next kinfolks and the dead buriers shall take them, and carry away their bones, and say unto him that is in the innermore house, 'Is there yet any more by thee?' And he shall answer, 'They are all gone. Hold thy tongue,' shall he say. For they would not remember the name of the LORD.

You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar. You say, "Did we not conquer Karnaim by our own power?"

Thus did the Lord Jehovah shew unto me; and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.

Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.

Thus did he shew unto me; and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.

Thus did Jehovah shew unto me; and behold, a basket of summer-fruit.

And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

“Though they dig into Sheol [to hide in the deepest pit],
From there My hand will take them [for judgment];
And though they climb up to heaven [to hide in the realm of light],
From there will I bring them down [for judgment].

As sons of Cushim are ye not to Me? O sons of Israel -- an affirmation of Jehovah. Israel did I not bring up out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?

“Because of the violence you did against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you [completely],
And you shall be cut off forever.

Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

For near is the day of Jehovah, on all the nations, As thou hast done, it is done to thee, Thy deed doth turn back on thine own head.

And they said to one another, Come, let us put this to the decision of chance and see on whose account this evil has come on us. So they did so, and Jonah was seen to be the man.

Then they said to him, “Now tell us! Who is to blame for this disaster? What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country?”

Then did the men revere with great reverence, and said unto him, What is it thou hast done? For the men knew that, away from the presence of Yahweh, he was fleeing, - for he had told them.

So they cried out to Yahweh, and they said, "O Yahweh! Please do not let us perish because of this man's life, and {do not make us guilty of innocent blood}, because you, O Yahweh, did what you wanted."

Then did the men revere Yahweh with a great reverence, - and offered sacrifice to Yahweh, and vowed vows.

I sank to the roots of the mountains; the earth's prison bars closed around me forever. Yet you resurrect the dead from the Pit, LORD my God!

And the tidings came unto the king of Nineveh, which arose out of his seat, and did his apparel off and put on sackcloth, and sat him down in ashes.

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

So he prayed unto Yahweh, and said - Ah now! Yahweh! Was not, this, my word, while I was yet upon mine own soil? For this cause, did I hasten to flee unto Tarshish, - because I knew that, thou, art a GOD of favour and compassion, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and art grieved over calamity.

But early on the morning after, God made ready a worm for the destruction of the vine, and it became dry and dead.

And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

But Yahweh said, "You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. {It grew up in a night and it perished in a night}!

Moreover, I will bring on you
The one who takes possession,
O inhabitant of Mareshah (Prominent Place).
The glory (nobility) of Israel will enter Adullam [seeking refuge].

Woe [to] those who plan wickedness and evil deeds upon their beds! In the light of the morning they did it, because they have power in their hands.

This is what the Lord says: "The prophets who mislead my people are as good as dead. If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him.

But, in very deed, I, am full of vigour, with the spirit of Yahweh, and of justice and of valour, - to declare to Jacob, his transgression, and to Israel, his sin.

In that day, Declareth Yahweh, will I take up her teat is lame, and, her that hath been an outcast, will I carry, - even whomsoever I have afflicted;

And in anger and in wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations who did not obey."

My people, what did I to thee? and in what did I weary thee? answer to me.

O My people, remember, I pray you, What counsel did Balak king of Moab, What answer him did Balaam son of Beor, (From Shittim unto Gilgal,) In order to know the righteous acts of Jehovah.'

He announced to thee, O man, what was good; and what did Jehovah require of thee but to do judgment and to love mercy, and being humbled, to go with thy God?

Use your rod to shepherd your people, the flock that belongs to you, that lives alone in the forest of Carmel. Let them find pasture in Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago.

As I did when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you awesome things.

This is the heavy burden of Nineveh, which Nahum of Elkosh did write, as he saw it.

The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! {Many corpses are piled high}! There is no end to the slain! They stumble over their dead!

There is no weakening of thy destruction, Grievous is thy smiting, All hearing thy fame have clapped the hand at thee, For over whom did not thy wickedness pass continually?

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

How long, O Jehovah, did I cry for help, and thou wilt not bear? I will cry to thee violence, and thou wilt not save.

for the vision is yet far off for a time, but at the last it shall come to pass, and not fail. And though he tarry, yet wait thou for him, for in very deed he will come, and not be slack.

"But all these nations will someday taunt him and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 'The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead (How long will this go on?) -- he who gets rich by extortion!'

The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. He does this so he can build his nest way up high and escape the clutches of disaster.

The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead -- he who starts a town by unjust deeds.

"You who force your neighbor to drink wine are as good as dead -- you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, so you can look at their genitals.

Indeed, the violence done to Lebanon will overtake you, and the destruction of the beasts will terrorize you because you shed human blood and did violence to the land, to the city, and to all who live in it."