and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,”
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?
Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.”
“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”
Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.
“Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord God, the God of hosts,
“that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,”
“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.
And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,”
“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,”
“I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,”
“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,”
“I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,”
For 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 heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
“Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.”
For thus says the Lord God: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live;
Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!
He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,”
Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light,
as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes!
Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory,
O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence?
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