2  ^eHear, you peoples, all of you;¹

^fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and ^glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

^hthe Lord from his holy temple.

3  For behold, ⁱthe Lord is coming out of ^jhis place,

and will come down and ^ktread upon the high places of the earth.

4  And ^lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

5  All this is for ^mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

ⁿWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not ^dSamaria?

And what is ^othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

6  Therefore I will make ^dSamaria ^pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones ^qinto the valley

and ^runcover her foundations.

7  All ^sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

^tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from ^tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

8  ^uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go ^vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation ^wlike the jackals,

and mourning ^xlike the ostriches.

9  ^yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

10  ^zTell it not in ^aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

^broll yourselves in the dust.

11  Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

^cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

12  For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down ^dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

13  Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of ^eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

^fthe transgressions of Israel.

14  Therefore you shall give parting gifts²

to ^gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of ^hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

15  I will again bring ⁱa conqueror to you,

inhabitants of ^hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to ^jAdullam.

16  ^kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

^kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

1  ^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,³

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?⁴

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.⁵

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.

1  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 people⁶

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.

1  I will bless the Lord ^pat all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2  My soul ^qmakes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and ^rbe glad.

3  Oh, ^smagnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

4  I ^tsought the Lord, and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears.

5  Those who look to him are ^uradiant,

and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6  ^vThis poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

and ^wsaved him out of all his troubles.

7  ^xThe angel of the Lord ^yencamps

around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8  Oh, ^ztaste and see that ^athe Lord is good!

^bBlessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9  Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

10  ^cThe young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who ^dseek the Lord lack no good thing.

11  ^eCome, O children, listen to me;

^fI will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12  ^gWhat man is there who desires life

and loves many days, that he may ^hsee good?

13  ⁱKeep your tongue from evil

and your lips from ^jspeaking deceit.

14  ^kTurn away from evil and do good;

seek peace and ^lpursue it.

15  ^mThe eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous

ⁿand his ears toward their cry.

16  ^oThe face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

to ^pcut off the memory of them from the earth.

17  ⁿWhen the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears

and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18  The Lord is near to ^qthe brokenhearted

and saves ^rthe crushed in spirit.

19  ^sMany are the afflictions of the righteous,

^tbut the Lord delivers him out of them all.

20  He keeps all his bones;

^unot one of them is broken.

21  ^vAffliction will slay the wicked,

and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22  The Lord ^wredeems the life of his servants;

none of those who take refuge in him will be ^xcondemned.