Chapter 2

¹ They meditated troubles, and wrought ¹wickedness on their beds, and they put it in execution with the daylight; for they have not lifted up their hands to God. ² And they desired fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed families, and spoiled a man and his house, even a man and his inheritance.

³ Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I devise evils against this family, out of which ye shall not lift up your necks, neither shall ye walk upright ²speedily: for the time is evil.

⁴ In that day shall a parable be taken up against you, and a ³plaintive lamentation shall be uttered, saying, We are thoroughly miserable: the portion of my people has been measured out with a line, and there was none to hinder him so as to turn him back; your fields have been divided. ⁵ Therefore thou shalt have no one to cast a line for the lot. ⁶ Weep not with tears in the assembly of the Lord, neither let any weep for these things; for he shall not remove the reproaches, ⁷ who says, The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord; are not these his practices? Are not ⁴the Lord's words right with him? and have they not proceeded correctly? ⁸ Even beforetime my people withstood him ⁵as an enemy against his peace; they have stripped off his skin to remove hope in the conflict of war. ⁹ The leaders of my people shall be cast forth from their luxurious houses; they are rejected because of their evil practices; draw ye near to the everlasting mountains.

¹⁰ Arise thou, and depart; for this is not thy rest because of uncleanness: ye have been utterly destroyed; ¹¹ ye have fled, no one pursuing you: thy spirit has framed falsehood, it has dropped on thee for wine and strong drink. But it shall come to pass, that out of the dropping of this people, ¹² Jacob shall be completely gathered with all his people: I will surely ⁶receive the remnant of Israel; I will cause them to return together, as sheep in trouble, as a flock in the midst of their fold: they shall rush forth from among men through the breach made before them: ¹³ they have broken through, and passed the gate, and gone out by it: and their king has gone out before them, and the Lord shall lead them.

Chapter 3

¹ And he shall say, Hear now these words, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye remnant of the house of Israel; is it not for you to know judgment? ² who hate good, and seek evil; who tear their skins off them, and their flesh off their bones: ³ even as they devoured the flesh of my people, and stripped their skins off them, and broke their bones, and divided them as flesh for the caldron, and as meat for the ⁷pot, ⁴ thus

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they shall cry to the Lord, but he shall not hearken to them; and he shall turn away his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their practices against themselves.

⁵ Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that lead my people astray, that bit with their teeth, and proclaim peace to them; and when nothing was put into their mouth, they raised up war against them: ⁶ therefore there shall be night to you ⁸instead of a vision, and there shall be to you darkness instead of prophecy; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark upon them. ⁷ And the seers of night-visions shall be ashamed, and the prophets shall be laughed to scorn: and all ⁹the people shall speak against them, because there shall be none to hearken to them. ⁸ Surely I will strengthen myself with the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of power, to declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins.

⁹ Hear now these words, ye chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness; ¹⁰ who build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ The heads thereof have judged for gifts, and the priests thereof have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and yet they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us. ¹² Therefore on your account Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruits, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.