Bible in 90 Days

⁷ So now I will be like a lion to them;
    like a leopard I will lurk beside the road.
⁸ Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them
    and rip their hearts from their breasts.
Like a lion I will devour them;
    like a wild beast I will tear them apart.
⁹ You are destroyed, O Israel;
    who is there to help you?
¹⁰ Where now is your king
    that he may save you?
Where in all your cities are your rulers,
    about whom you said,
    “Give me a king and rulers”?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger,
    and in my wrath I took him away.^[a]

¹² The guilt of Ephraim is stored up;
    his sins are kept on record.
¹³ He experiences the pangs of childbirth,
    but he is a child lacking in wisdom.
When his time for birth arrives,
    he does not leave the womb.
¹⁴ Shall I deliver them from the power of the netherworld?^[b]
    Shall I redeem them from death?
O death, where are your plagues?
    O netherworld, where is your sting?
    Compassion will be banished from my sight.
¹⁵ Although Ephraim may be more fruitful than his brothers,
    an east wind^[c] from the Lord will come,
    rising from the desert,
causing his springs to be arid
    and his fountain to dry up.
His treasury will be plundered
    of every precious thing.

¹ Samaria will be severely punished
    because she has rebelled against her God.
Her people will fall by the sword;
    her little ones will be dashed to pieces,
    and her pregnant women will be ripped open.^[d]

² Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God;
    your iniquity has been the cause of your downfall.
³ Prepare in advance what you want to say,
    and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Take away all guilt
    and give us what is good,
so that we may present as offerings
    the bullocks from our stalls.
⁴ Assyria will not save us,
    nor shall we mount horses of war.
We shall never again say ‘Our god’
    to the work of our hands,
    for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
⁵ I will forgive them for their apostasy,
    and I will love them freely,
    for my wrath is turned away from them.
⁶ I will be like the dew to Israel;
    they will blossom like a lily;
    they will strike root like the cedars of Lebanon.
⁷ They will put out fresh shoots;
    their splendor shall be like that of the olive tree
    and their fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
⁸ They shall again dwell in my shade
    and once again flourish like grain.
They shall blossom like the vine,
    and their fame will be like that of the wine of Lebanon.
⁹ What further dealings does Ephraim have with idols?
    I hear you and look out for your welfare.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
    your prosperity derives from me.

¹⁰ Let those who are wise understand these words,
    and let the prudent acknowledge them.
For straight are the ways of the Lord;
    the upright walk in them,
    but sinners stumble.^[f]

² Hear this, you elders!
    Listen to me, all you inhabitants of the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?
³ Tell your children about it,
    and let them relate it to their children,
    and their children to the next generation.
⁴ What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten.
And what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.
⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
    Lament, all you winedrinkers!
For the juice of the grape
    will be snatched from your mouth.
⁶ For a nation has invaded my land,
    powerful and too vast to count,
possessing teeth like those of a lion,
    and the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vines
    and destroyed my fig trees,
stripping off their bark
    and leaving their branches white.
⁸ Lament like a virgin garbed in sackcloth
    grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
⁹ Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests, the ministers of the Lord,
    are in mourning.
¹⁰ The fields are destroyed;
    the earth mourns.
The grain has been ruined;
    the wine has dried up;
    the oil has failed.
¹¹ Despair, you farmers,
    and wail, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley;
    the harvest of the fields is lost.
¹² The vine has withered;
    the fig tree droops.
The pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree—
    all the trees of the field have dried up.
And the joy of the people
    has also withered away.

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests!
    Wail, you ministers of the altar!
Come, pass the entire night in sackcloth,
    you ministers of my God!
For the house of your God is deprived
    of grain offerings and libations.
¹⁴ Announce a holy fast;
    proclaim a solemn assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord, your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.
¹⁵ Woe to us on that day!
    For the day of the Lord^[i] is near,
    coming as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off
    before our very eyes?
Have not joy and gladness disappeared
    from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seed has shriveled under the clods;
    the storehouses are empty,
and the granaries are deserted
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How loudly the cattle groan!
    The herds of oxen are bewildered
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep are wasting away.
¹⁹ To you, O Lord, I cry,
    for fire has consumed the open pastures
    and flames have destroyed every tree in the countryside.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field
    cry out to you.
For the streams of water have dried up,
    and fire has devoured the open pastures.

¹ Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
² A day of darkness and gloom is near,
    a day of clouds and blackness.
Like the dawn spreading over the mountains,
    a vast and powerful army approaches.
Their like has never been seen,
    nor will it ever be seen again
    in the ages to come.
³ Their vanguard is a devouring fire,
    while behind them is a consuming flame.
Ahead of them the land is like the Garden of Eden,
    but behind them lies a desert waste,
    and from that army there is no escape.
⁴ They have the appearance of horses;
    like cavalry they charge.
⁵ They leap over the mountaintops
    with a deafening din like that of chariots,
like the crackling of a blazing fire
    devouring stubble,
like a mighty army
    drawn up for battle.
⁶ At the sight of them
    people shrink back in anguish,
    their faces without color.
⁷ Like warriors they press forward;
    like soldiers they scale the walls.
They advance, marching straight ahead,
    without swerving from their paths.
⁸ They do not jostle one another;
    each marches straight ahead.
They surge through defenses
    without breaking ranks.
⁹ They burst ahead to assault the city,
    leaping onto the walls.
They climb into the houses,
    entering like thieves through the windows.
¹⁰ As they move forward,
    the earth quakes before them
    and the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withhold their light.
¹¹ The Lord’s voice thunders
    at the head of his army.
Mighty and numerous are his forces,
    and they enforce his orders.
Great is the day of the Lord
    and exceedingly terrible;
    who can endure it?

¹² Yet even now, says the Lord,
    return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
¹³ Rend your hearts and not your garments,
    and turn back to the Lord, your God.
For he is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger, rich in kindness,
    and always prepared to relent from punishing.
¹⁴ Perhaps he will turn back and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
cereal offerings and libations
    to be presented to the Lord, your God.
¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion!
    Proclaim a fast!
    Announce a solemn assembly!
¹⁶ Gather the people together;
    summon the community;
assemble the elders;
    gather the children,
    even infants at the breast.
Call forth the bridegroom from his bedroom
    and the bride from her wedding chamber.
¹⁷ Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
    stand weeping, between the temple porch and the altar,
as they say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and do not allow your heritage^[l] to be mocked
    and subjected to the contempt of the nations.
Why should the peoples say
    ‘Where is their God?’ ”

I will send you
    grain and wine and oil,
    and you will have all you need.
Never again will I expose you
    to the contempt of the nations.
²⁰ I shall drive the northern army far from you
    and banish them to an arid and desolate land,
with their vanguard toward the eastern sea,^[n]
    and their rearguard toward the western sea.
They will give off a stench,
    and a foul stench will rise up.
²¹ Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things.
²² Be not afraid, you beasts of the field,
    for the open pastures are green once again.
The trees will bear fruit;
    the fig tree and the vine will yield a full harvest.
²³ O children of Zion, be glad,
    and rejoice in the Lord, your God.
For he has given you food in good measure
    by sending you rain,
    the autumn and spring rains as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be full of grain,
    and the vats will overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵ I will repay you for the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopping, the destroying, and the cutting locust,
    my great army which I sent against you.
²⁶ You will eat until you are satisfied,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord, your God,
for he has dealt wondrously with you,
    and my people will never again be put to shame.
²⁷ And you shall know
    that I am in the midst of Israel.
I am the Lord, your God, and there is no other;
    my people shall never again be put to shame.

¹ After this,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind.
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy;
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
² Even on the male and female slaves
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³ I will show portents
    in the heavens and on the earth,
    blood and fire and columns of smoke.
⁴ The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
before the coming of the day of the Lord,
    that great and terrible day.
⁵ Then everyone will be saved
    who calls on the name of the Lord.
For on Mount Zion
    there will be a remnant,
    as the Lord has said,
and in Jerusalem there will be survivors
    whom the Lord will call.

¹ In those days, and at that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
² I will gather all the nations together
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I shall bring them to judgment
    on account of my people
    and my inheritance Israel,
because they have scattered them among the nations
    and divided my land among themselves.
³ They cast lots for my people,
    trading boys for prostitutes
    and girls for wine to drink.

    Prepare for war!
Summon all the soldiers
    to advance for the attack.
¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords,
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”
¹¹ Hasten and come, all you nations,
    and gather together there;
    send us your warriors, O Lord.
¹² Let the nations rouse themselves
    and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.^[q]
For there I will sit in judgment
    upon all the neighboring nations.
¹³ Wield the sickles,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Come and trample the grapes,
    for the winepress is full.
The vats are overflowing,
    for great is their wickedness.
¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes,
    in the Valley of Decision.^[r]
For the day of the Lord is near
    in the Valley of Decision.
¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withhold their light.
¹⁶ The Lord roars from Zion
    and thunders from Jerusalem,
    so that the heavens and the earth shake.
However, the Lord is a refuge for his people,
    a stronghold for the people of Israel.
¹⁷ Then you will know
    that I, the Lord, am your God,
    dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
    and foreigners shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸ When that day comes,
    the mountains will run with new wine.
The hills will flow with milk,
    and all the channels of Judah
    will flow with water.
A fountain will spring from the house of the Lord
    to water the Valley of Shittim.
¹⁹ Egypt will become a desolation
    and Edom a desert waste
because of the violence done to the people of Judah
    as well as the innocent blood shed in their land.
²⁰ But Judah will be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
²¹ I will avenge their blood
    and not allow it to go unpunished.
    The Lord dwells in Zion.

“The Lord roars from Zion,
    and his name thunders forth from Jerusalem.
The pastures of the shepherds will wither
    and the summit of Carmel will be arid.”

For three crimes of Damascus, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they threshed Gilead
    with threshing-sledges of iron,
⁴ I will send fire on the house of Hazael,
    and it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.^[u]
5 I will demolish the gate bars of Damascus
    and destroy the inhabitants in the Valley of Aven,
as well as the sceptered ruler of Beth-eden;^[v]
    the people of Aram will be exiled to Kir,
    says the Lord.

For three crimes of Gaza, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they deported entire communities
    and sent them in exile to Edom,
⁷ I will send fire down on the walls of Gaza
    to devour its palaces.
⁸ I will destroy the inhabitants of Ashdod
    and the sceptered ruler at Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
    and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,
    says the Lord God.

For three crimes of Tyre, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they delivered entire communities to slavery in Edom
    and ignored the covenant of brotherhood,
¹⁰ I will send fire down on the walls of Tyre
    to devour its palaces.

For three crimes of Edom, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because he pursued his brother with the sword
    and stifled any semblance of pity,
because he was unceasing in his anger
    and constantly nurtured his wrath,
¹² I will send down fire on Teman
    to devour the palaces of Bozrah.

For three crimes of the Ammonites, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they ripped open the pregnant women in Gilead
    in their determination to enlarge their territory,
¹⁴ I will send down fire upon the walls of Rabbah^[w]
    to devour its palaces
amid war cries on the day of battle
    and violent storms on the day of the whirlwind.
¹⁵ Then their king will go into exile,
    accompanied by his chief advisors,
    says the Lord.

For three crimes of Moab, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they incinerated to ashes
    the bones of the king of Edom,^[x]
2 I will send down fire on Moab
    to devour the palaces of Kerioth.
Moab will perish amid the uproar,
    amid war cries and the sound of trumpets.
³ I will destroy its rulers
    and slaughter all of his officials with him.

For three crimes of Judah, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
Because they have spurned the law of the Lord
    and have not observed his statutes,
having been led astray
    by the lies which their fathers followed,
⁵ I will send fire down on Judah
    to devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

For three crimes of Israel, and for four,
    I will not revoke my decree.
They sell righteous people for silver
    and the poor for a pair of sandals.
⁷ They have trampled the heads of the poor
    into the dust of the earth
    and thrust the lowly out of their way.
Father and son lie with the same prostitute,
    profaning my holy name.
⁸ They lie down beside every altar
    upon garments acquired as surety,^[y]
while drinking in the house of their God
    the wine purchased with the fines they impose.
⁹ Yet I was the one
    who destroyed the Amorites^[z] before them;
they were as tall as the cedars
    and as strong as the oaks.
I was the one
    who destroyed their fruit above
    and their roots below.
¹⁰ I was the one
    who brought you up from the land of Egypt
and for forty years led you through the desert
    to take possession of the land of the Amorites.
¹¹ I was the one
    who raised up some of your sons to be prophets
    and some of your young men to be Nazirites.
Is this not indeed true, O Israelites?
    says the Lord.
¹² But you forced the Nazirites to drink wine
    and commanded the prophets, “Do not prophesy!”
¹³ Therefore, I will crush you
    just as a cart crushes when it is fully laden.
¹⁴ The swift will be unable to take flight;
    the strong man will not retain his strength,
    and the warrior will be unable to save his life.
¹⁵ The archer will not stand his ground;
    the swift of foot will not escape,
    nor will the horseman save his life.
¹⁶ Even the bravest of warriors
    will flee away naked on that day,
    says the Lord.

² Of all the families of the earth,
    you alone have I favored.
That is why I will punish you
    for all your iniquities.

³ Do two people travel together
    unless they have first agreed to do so?
⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest
    when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den
    unless it has caught something?
⁵ Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth
    unless a trap has been set for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground
    unless something has been caught in it?
⁶ Are people not alarmed
    if a trumpet sounds in the city?
If disaster strikes a city,
    can that occur without the approval of the Lord?^[aa]
7 Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
    without revealing his plan
    to his servants, the prophets.
⁸ The lion roars;
    who will not be frightened?
The Lord God has spoken;
    who will not prophesy?

⁹ Proclaim this from the
    palaces of Ashdod
    and from the palaces of the land of Egypt:
“Assemble on the hills of Samaria
    and observe the great disorders there,
    as well as the oppression in her midst.”
¹⁰ For they do not know how to do what is right,
    says the Lord,
as they store up in their palaces
    their ill-gotten gains from violence and robbery.

An enemy shall surround your land;
    he will tear down your strongholds
    and pillage your palaces.

As the shepherd rescues from the jaws of a lion
    two legs or the tip of an ear,
so will the Israelites who live in Samaria be rescued
    with the corner of a couch or the edge of a cot.

¹⁴ On the day when I punish Israel for its crimes,
    I will also deal with the altars of Bethel:
the horns of the altar shall be hacked off
    and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ I shall destroy the winter house
    as well as the summer house.
The houses of ivory will perish,
    and many mansions will be no more,
    says the Lord.

¹ Listen to this warning, you cows of Bashan,
    you women who dwell on the mount of Samaria,
you who oppress the weak and crush the needy,
    who command your husbands, “Bring us something to drink!”
² The Lord God has sworn by his holiness:
    The time is surely coming upon you
when you will be dragged away with hooks,
    and the last of you with fishhooks.
³ Through breaches in the wall you will leave
    each one straight ahead,
and you shall be flung out atop a dungheap,
    says the Lord.

⁴ Come to Bethel and sin!
    Come to Gilgal and sin even more!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every third day.
⁵ Burn your thank offering of leavened bread,
    and brag publicly about your free-will offerings.
For this is what you love to do,
    O children of Israel, says the Lord God.

⁶ Although I made your teeth
    clean of food in all your cities
and spread famine in all your villages,
    you still would not return to me, says the Lord.
⁷ I even withheld the rain from you
    when there were still three months before the harvest.
I would allow rain to fall upon one town
    but not upon another.
One field would be watered by rain,
    while another would receive none and dry up.
⁸ People from two or three towns
    would stagger to a neighboring town to drink water,
    yet their thirst remained unquenched.
Yet even then you would not return to me,
    says the Lord.
⁹ I struck you with mildew and blight,
    I laid waste your gardens and vineyards;
the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees,
    but still you would not return to me,
    says the Lord.
¹⁰ I sent among you a plague like that of Egypt,
    and I slaughtered your young men with the sword.
I allowed your horses to be captured;
    I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps.
And still you would not return to me,
    says the Lord.
¹¹ I brought destruction among you
    like that which devastated Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a brand snatched from the fire,
    and still you would not come back to me,
    says the Lord.
¹² Therefore, O Israel,
    this is what I plan to do with you.
And because I intend to do this,
    prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

¹³ He is the one who formed the mountains
    and created the wind,
    and who reveals to men his thoughts,
who changes the dawn into darkness
    and strides upon the heights of the earth:
    the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name.

² She has fallen, to rise no more,
    the virgin Israel.
She lies forsaken on her own soil,
    with no one to raise her up.

The city that marched out to war with a thousand
    will be left with a hundred;
and the one that marched out with a hundred
    will have only ten left.

If you seek me, you will survive,
⁵     but do not go to Bethel.
Do not journey to Gilgal,
    and do not cross over to Beer-sheba.
For Gilgal will surely be led into exile,
    and Bethel shall come to nothing.
⁶ Seek the Lord and you will live,
    or else, like a fire,
he will sweep through the house of Joseph,
    with no one able to quench the flames.

⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    who turns heavy darkness into dawn
    and darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the sea
    and pours them out over the surface of the earth,
⁹ who brings destruction on the strong
    and ruin upon the fortress:
    the Lord is his name.
⁷ Woe to those who turn justice to wormwood
    and thrust righteousness to the ground.

¹⁰ They hate the one who preaches justice at the city gate
    and abhor the one who speaks the truth.
¹¹ Therefore, because you have trampled upon the poor
    and extorted levies on their wheat,
even though you have built houses of hewn stone,
    you will never live in them;
although you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    you will never drink their wine.
¹² For I know how many are your crimes
    and how monstrous are your sins.
You oppress the innocent, accept bribes,
    and push aside the destitute at the gates.
¹³ Therefore, the prudent man keeps silent in such a situation,
    for it is an evil period.

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil,
    so that you may live.
Then the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you
    as you claim he is.
¹⁵ Hate evil and love good,
    and let justice prevail at the city gate.
Then it is possible that the Lord, the God of hosts,
    will show mercy to the remnant of Joseph.^[ab]

In every public square there will be lamentation;
    in every street they will cry out, “Alas! Alas!”
They will summon the farmers to wail,
    and the professional mourners to lament.
¹⁷ There will be wailing in every vineyard,
    for I will pass through your midst,
    says the Lord.
¹⁸ Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord.
    What will this day of the Lord mean to you?
It will mean darkness, not light,
¹⁹     as if someone fled from a lion
    and was met by a bear,
or entered his house
    and rested his hand against the wall
    and was bitten by a snake.
²⁰ Will not the day of the Lord
    be darkness, not light,
    day of gloom without any brightness?

²¹ I loathe, I despise your festivals,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²² Even though you bring me
    your burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Nor will I look favorably
    upon your stall-fed peace offerings.
²³ Spare me the noise of your chanting;
    I will not listen to the melodies of your harps.
²⁴ Rather, let justice flow like a river,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
²⁵ Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    during those forty years in the desert,
    O house of Israel?
²⁶ You have lifted up Sakuth, your king,
    and Kaiwan, your star god,
    the images that you have made for yourselves.
²⁷ Therefore, I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,
    says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

¹ Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
    and for those who feel secure on the mount of Samaria,
the leaders of the most important of the nations
    to whom the people of Israel have recourse.
² Cross over to Calneh^[ac] and see;
    travel on from there to Hamath the great,
    and then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Is your territory greater than theirs?
³ You put aside all thoughts of the evil day
    and thereby hasten the reign of violence.
⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory
    and lounge on their couches.
They feast on lambs from the flock
    and stall-fattened calves.
⁵ They improvise on the music of the harp,
    and, like David, they invent musical instruments.
⁶ They drink wine by the bowlful
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but they feel no grief over the ruin of Joseph.
⁷ Therefore, they will now be the first to go into exile,
    and their wanton revelry will come to an end.

⁸ The Lord God has sworn by himself.
    Thus say I, the Lord, the God of hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob
    and hate his palaces,
I shall deliver up the city
    and all that is in it.
⁹ If ten men are left in a single house,
    they will die.
¹⁰ Only a few will be left
    to carry out the dead from the house.
If someone calls to a man inside the house,
    “Are there any more there?”
    and he answers, “No,”
then he will say, “Hush,”
    for the name of the Lord must not be mentioned.
¹¹ At the Lord’s command,
    the great house will be shattered to bits,
    and the small houses will be reduced to rubble.
¹² Can horses gallop over rocks?
    Can one plow the sea with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of justice into venom—
¹³ you who rejoice in Lodebar,^[ad]
    who say, “Have we not, by our own strength,
    seized Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴ Beware, O house of Israel,
    for I am raising up against you a nation,
    says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and that nation shall oppress you
    from Lebo of Hamath even to the Wadi Arabah.

Lord God, forgive, I beg you.
    Jacob is so small;
    how can he survive?

Lord God, cease, I beg you.
    Jacob is so small;
    how can he survive?

Behold, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    never again will I forgive their offenses.
⁹ The high places of Isaac shall be laid waste,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel will be left desolate;
with sword in hand
    I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.

“ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
    and the Israelites will be taken into captivity,
    far away from their native land.’ ”

“ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be parceled out by a measuring line;
    you yourself will die in a pagan country,
and Israel will be deported in captivity
    far from its native land.’ ”

The time is ripe for my people Israel;
    I will never again pardon their offenses.
³ The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day;
    there will be corpses strewn everywhere.
    Be silent! Thus says the Lord God.

⁴ Hear this, you who crush the needy
    and trample upon the poor of the land.
⁵ “When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
    “so that we may sell our grain,
and the Sabbath,
    so that we may market our wheat?
Then we can make the bushel measure smaller
    and increase the shekel-weight
    by adjusting the scales fraudulently.
⁶ We can buy the poor man for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals;
    we can even sell the refuse of the wheat.”
⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
    Never will I forget any of their deeds.
⁸ Will not the land tremble because of this?
    Will not everyone mourn who dwells in it?
The whole earth will rise like the Nile,
    swelling and then subsiding
    like the River of Egypt.

⁹ On that day, says the Lord God,
    I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning,
    and all your songs into lamentation.
I will make you cover your loins with sackcloth
    and shave your heads.
I will make it like mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.^[ag]
11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God,
    when I will send a famine upon the land,
not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water,
    but for hearing the word of the Lord.
¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from north to east,
in search of the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.
¹³ On that day, fair maidens and young men
    will faint from thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by the shameful idol of Samaria
    and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “By the sacred path to Beer-sheba,”
    will all fall and never rise again.^[ah]

Strike the tops of the pillars until the thresholds shake,
    and bring them down on the heads of all the people.
Should any survive,
    I will slay them with the sword.
Not one will be able to flee;
    not one will escape.
² Even should they dig down to the netherworld,
    from there my hand will take them.
Even though they climb up to heaven,
    I will bring them down.
³ Should they hide themselves on the summit of Carmel,
    there I will track them down and take them.
Should they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    I will command the serpent there to bite them.
⁴ If they are led by their enemies into captivity,
    there I shall command the sword to slay them.
I will fix my eyes on them
    for evil, and not for good.

⁵ The Lord, the God of hosts,
    touches the earth and it melts
    so that all who live on it mourn,
while the entire earth rises up like the Nile^[ai]
    and then subsides like the River of Egypt.
⁶ He builds his upper chambers in the heavens
    and establishes his vault of the sky over the earth—
    the Lord is his name.

Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
    O people of Israel?
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from Caphtor,
    and the Arameans from Kir?
⁸ Behold, I, the Lord God,
    have my eyes upon this sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

However, I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob,
    says the Lord.
⁹ For I will give the command
    and shake out the house of Israel
    from among all the nations,
as one sifts with a sieve
    without one pebble falling to the ground.
¹⁰ All the sinners among my people shall die by the sword,
    those who say, “Evil will not approach or overtake us.”