2  ^lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil ^mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

2  They covet fields and ⁿseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

3  Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against ^othis family I am devising disaster,¹

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you ^pshall not walk haughtily,

^qfor it will be a time of disaster.

4  In that day ^rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

^she changes the portion of my people;

^show he removes it from me!

^tTo an apostate he allots our fields.”

5  Therefore you will have none ^uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

6  ^v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

^w“one should not preach of such things;

^xdisgrace will not overtake us.”

7  Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

^vHas the Lord grown impatient?²

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

8  But lately ^ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.³

9  The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

10  ^zArise and go,

for this is no ^aplace to rest,

because of ^buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

11  If a man should go about and ^cutter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you ^dof wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

12  I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

^eI will gather ^fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

^hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

13  ⁱHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

^jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

^kthe Lord at their head.

3  And I said:

^lHear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

^mIs it not for you to know justice?—

2  you ⁿwho hate the good and love the evil,

^owho tear the skin from off my people¹

and their flesh from off their bones,

3  ^pwho eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

4  ^qThen they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

^rhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

5  Thus says the Lord concerning ^sthe prophets

who lead my people astray,

^twho cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

6  Therefore ^uit shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

^vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

7  ^wthe seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

^xthey shall all cover their lips,

for ^ythere is no answer from God.

8  But as for me, ^zI am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob ^ahis transgression

and to Israel his sin.

9  ^bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

^cwho detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

10  ^dwho build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  ^eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;

^fits priests teach for a price;

^gits prophets practice divination for money;

^hyet they lean on the Lord and ⁱsay,

“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

^jNo disaster shall come upon us.”

12  Therefore because of you

^kZion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem ^lshall become a heap of ruins,

and ^mthe mountain of the house ⁿa wooded height.

4  It shall come to pass ^oin the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and it shall be lifted up above the hills;

and peoples shall flow to it,

2  and many nations shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,¹

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3  He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;

and they shall ^pbeat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore;

4  ^qbut they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,

^rand no one shall make them afraid,

^sfor the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

5  For ^tall the peoples walk

each in the name of its god,

but ^uwe will walk in the name of the Lord our God

forever and ever.

6  ^vIn that day, declares the Lord,

^wI will assemble the ^xlame

and gather those who have been driven away

and those whom I have afflicted;

7  and the lame I will make ^ythe remnant,

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and ^zthe Lord will reign over them ^ain Mount Zion

from this time forth and forevermore.

8  And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you shall it come,

the former dominion shall come,

kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9  Now why do you cry aloud?

^bIs there no king in you?

^cHas your counselor perished,

that ^dpain seized you like a woman in labor?

10  ^eWrithe and groan,² O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for ^fnow you shall go out from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you ^gshall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued;

^hthere the Lord will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies.

11  Now ⁱmany nations

are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be defiled,

and ^jlet our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

12  But ^kthey do not know

the thoughts of the Lord;

they do not understand his plan,

that ^lhe has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13  Arise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

for I will make your horn iron,

and I will make your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples;

and ^mshall devote^{3 n}their gain to the Lord,

their wealth to ^othe Lord of the whole earth.

5  ¹ Now muster your troops, O daughter² of troops;

siege is laid against us;

with a rod ^pthey strike the judge of Israel

on the cheek.

2  ^{3 q}But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of ^rJudah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ^sruler in Israel,

^twhose coming forth is ^ufrom of old,

from ancient days.

3  Therefore he shall give them up ^vuntil the time

when she who is in labor has given birth;

then ^wthe rest of his brothers shall return

to the people of Israel.

4  And he shall stand ^xand shepherd his flock ^yin the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now ^zhe shall be great

to the ends of the earth.

5  And he shall be ^atheir peace.

^bWhen the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads in our palaces,

then we will raise against him seven ^cshepherds

and eight princes of men;

6  they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of ^dNimrod at its entrances;

and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian

^bwhen he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

7  Then ^wthe remnant of Jacob shall be

in the midst of many peoples

like dew from the Lord,

like showers on the grass,

which delay not for a man

nor wait for the children of man.

8  And ^wthe remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

^ewhich, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

9  Your hand shall ^fbe lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10  And ^gin that day, declares the Lord,

^hI will cut off your horses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;

11  ⁱand I will cut off the cities of your land

and throw down all your strongholds;

12  and I will cut off ^jsorceries from your hand,

and ^kyou shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

13  and ^lI will cut off your carved images

and ^myour pillars from among you,

ⁿand you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

14  and I will root out your ^oAsherah images from among you

ⁱand destroy your cities.

15  And in anger and wrath ^pI will execute vengeance

on the nations that did not obey.

6  ^qHear what the Lord says:

Arise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

2  ^rHear, you mountains, ^sthe indictment of the Lord,

and you enduring foundations of the earth,

for the Lord has an indictment against his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

3  “O my people, ^twhat have I done to you?

^uHow have I wearied you? Answer me!

4  For ^vI brought you up from the land of Egypt

and ^wredeemed you from the house of slavery,

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and ^xMiriam.

5  O my people, remember ^ywhat Balak king of Moab devised,

and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from ^zShittim to Gilgal,

that you may know ^athe righteous acts of the Lord.”

6  ^b“With what shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before ^cGod on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7  ^dWill the Lord be pleased with¹ thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

^eShall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8  He has told you, O man, what is good;

and ^fwhat does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,²

and to ^gwalk humbly with your God?

9  The voice of the Lord cries to the city—

and it is sound wisdom to fear ^hyour name:

“Hear of ⁱthe rod and of him who appointed it!³

10  Can I forget any longer the treasures⁴ of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

and the scant measure that is accursed?

11  Shall I acquit the man ^jwith wicked scales

and with a bag of deceitful weights?

12  Your⁵ rich men are ^kfull of violence;

your inhabitants ^lspeak lies,

and ^mtheir tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13  Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,

ⁿmaking you desolate because of your sins.

14  ^oYou shall eat, but not be satisfied,

and there shall be hunger within you;

you shall put away, but not preserve,

and what you preserve I will give to the sword.

15  ^pYou shall sow, but not reap;

you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

16  For you have kept the statutes of ^qOmri,⁶

and all the works of the house of ^rAhab;

and you have walked in their counsels,

that I may make you ^sa desolation, and your⁷ inhabitants ^sa hissing;

so you shall bear ^tthe scorn of my people.”