Day 151 of 365

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.

¹But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it.

²Many nations will go and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;

³and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

⁴But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

⁵Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

⁶"In that day," says the Lord, "I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

⁷and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever."

⁸You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now 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?

¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go forth out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion."

¹²But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

¹Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

²But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

³Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

⁴He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

⁵He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land, and when he marches through our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders of men.

⁶They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, when he invades our land, and when he marches within our border.

⁷The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, that do not wait for man, nor wait for the sons of men.

⁸The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.

⁹Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all of your enemies be cut off.

¹⁰"It will happen in that day," says the Lord, "That I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and will destroy your chariots.

¹¹I will cut off the cities of your land, and will tear down all your strongholds.

¹²I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers.

¹³I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out of your midst; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

¹⁴I will uproot your Asherim out of your midst; and I will destroy your cities.

¹⁵I will execute vengeance in anger, and wrath on the nations that did not listen."