Day 64 of 90

¹Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, "Bring us drinks!"

²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that behold, "The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks.

³You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon," says the Lord.

⁴"Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days,

⁵offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel," says the Lord God.

⁶"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 the Lord.

⁷"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 did not rain withered.

⁸So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven't returned to me," says the Lord.

⁹"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 the Lord.

¹⁰"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 the Lord.

¹¹"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 the Lord.

¹²"Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.

¹³For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the Earth: The Lord, the God of Hosts, is his name."

¹Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

²"The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up."

³For thus says the Lord God: "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."

⁴For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live;

⁵but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶Seek the Lord, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

⁷You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

⁸seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name,

⁹who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

¹¹Forasmuch 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.

¹²For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins- you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you say.

¹⁵Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas! Alas!' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says the Lord.

¹⁸"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

²⁰Won't the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.

²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵"Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

²⁶You also carried the tabernacle of Moloch, and Rephan your star god, your images which you made for yourselves.

²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus," says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts.

¹Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!

²Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or is their border greater than your border?

³Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

⁴Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

⁵who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;

⁶who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

⁷Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end.

⁸"The Lord God has sworn by himself," says the Lord, the God of Hosts: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.

⁹It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.

¹⁰"When a man's relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, 'Is there yet any with you?' And he says, 'No;' then he will say, 'Hush! Indeed we must not mention the name of the Lord.'

¹¹"For, behold, the Lord commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.

¹²Do 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;

¹³you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, 'Haven't we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'

¹⁴For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel," says the Lord, the God of Hosts; "and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah."

¹Thus the Lord God showed 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 harvest.

²It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "Lord God, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small."

³The Lord relented concerning this. "It shall not be," says the Lord.

⁴Thus the Lord God showed me and behold, the Lord God called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land.

⁵Then I said, "Lord God, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small."

⁶The Lord relented concerning this. "This also shall not be," says the Lord God.

⁷Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

⁸The Lord said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

⁹The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

¹⁰Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

¹¹For Amos says, 'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"

¹²Amaziah also said to Amos, "You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:

¹³but do not prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house!"

¹⁴Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs;

¹⁵and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

¹⁶Now therefore listen to the word of the Lord: 'You say, Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not proclaim against the house of Isaac.'

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"

¹Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

²He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, "The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

³The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says the Lord God. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

⁴Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,

⁵Saying, 'When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;

⁶that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?'"

⁷The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will never forget any of their works.

⁸Won't the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.

⁹It will happen in that day," says the Lord God, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.

¹¹Behold, the days come," says the Lord God, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

¹²They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of the Lord, and will not find it.

¹³In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.

¹⁴Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, 'As your god, Dan, lives;' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives;' they will fall, and never rise up again."

¹I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, "Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.

²Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.

³Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.

⁴Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.

⁵For the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt.

⁶It is he who builds his chambers in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; the Lord is his name.

⁷Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?" says the Lord. "Haven't I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

⁸Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," says the Lord.

⁹"For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth.

¹⁰All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, 'Evil won't overtake nor meet us.'

¹¹In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;

¹²that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name," says the Lord who does this.

¹³"Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills.

¹⁴I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them," says the Lord your God.

¹The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord God says about Edom. We have heard news from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle.

²Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

³The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'

⁴Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says the Lord.

⁵"If thieves came to you, if robbers by night-oh, what disaster awaits you-wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some gleaning grapes?

⁶How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out!

⁷All 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."

⁸"Won't I in that day," says the Lord, "destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?

⁹Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

¹⁰For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

¹¹In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.

¹²But do not look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and do not rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Do not speak proudly in the day of distress.

¹³Do not enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.

¹⁴Do not stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Do not deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress.

¹⁵For the day of the Lord is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

¹⁶For 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.

¹⁷But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.

¹⁸The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau." Indeed, the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹Those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.

²⁰The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.

²¹Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord's.

¹Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

²"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before me."

³But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

⁴But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.

⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.

⁶So the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won't perish."

⁷They all said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is on us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸Then they asked him, "Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?"

⁹He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land."

¹⁰Then 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 the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹Then said they to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?" For the sea grew more and more stormy.

¹²He said to them, "Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you."

¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.

¹⁴Therefore they cried to the Lord, and said, "We beg you, Lord, we beg you, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood; for you, Lord, have done as it pleased you."

¹⁵So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging.

¹⁶Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.

¹⁷The Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

¹Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly.

²He said, "I called because of my affliction to the Lord. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.

³For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.

⁴I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

⁵The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.

⁶I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Lord my God.

⁷"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.

⁸Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

⁹But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord."

¹⁰The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

¹The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

²"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I give you."

³So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across.

⁴Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

⁵The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;

⁸but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?"

¹⁰God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

²He prayed to the Lord, and said, "Please, Lord, wasn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.

³Therefore now, Lord, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."

⁴The Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

⁵Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city.

⁶The Lord God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine.

⁷But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered.

⁸It happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

⁹God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?" He said, "I am right to be angry, even to death."

¹⁰The Lord 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.

¹¹Shouldn't I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can't discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?"

¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

³For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

⁵"All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn't it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren't they Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.

⁷All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return."

⁸For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.

⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Do not tell it in Gath. Do not weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

¹¹Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won't come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.

¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁶Shave 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!

¹Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

²They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

³Therefore thus says the Lord: "Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

⁴In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, 'We are utterly ruined! My people's possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"

⁵Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶"Do not prophesy!" They prophesy. "Do not prophesy about these things. Disgrace won't overtake us."

⁷Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?"

⁸But 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.

⁹You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever.

¹⁰Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.

¹¹If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: "I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink;" he would be the prophet of this people.

¹²I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they will swarm with people.

¹³He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. And their king passes on before them, with the Lord at their head.

¹I said, "Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn't it for you to know justice?

²You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

³who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

⁴Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil."

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, "Peace!" and whoever doesn't provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

⁶"Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

⁷The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God."

⁸But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

⁹Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on the Lord, and say, "Isn't the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster will come on us."

¹²Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.