3:1 I said,
“Listen, you leaders
you rulers of the nation
You ought to know what is just,
3:2 yet you
and love what is evil.
You flay my people’s skin
and rip the flesh from their bones.
3:3 You
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot
like meat in a kettle.
3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”
3:5 This is what the Lord says: “The prophets who mislead my people
are as good as dead.
If someone gives them enough to eat,
they offer an oracle of peace.
But if someone does not give them food,
they are ready to declare war on him.
3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.
3:7 The prophets
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths,
for they will receive no divine oracles.”
3:8 But I
and have a strong commitment to justice.
This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion,
and Israel with its sin.
3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family
you rulers of the nation
You
and pervert all that is right.
3:10 You
Jerusalem
3:11 Her
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust
“The Lord is among us.
Disaster will not overtake
3:12 Therefore, because of you,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount
4:1 In the future
it will be more prominent than other hills.
People will stream to it.
4:2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple
so he can teach us his commands
and we can live by his laws.”
For Zion will be the source of instruction;
the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem.
4:3 He will arbitrate
and settle disputes between many
They will beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations will not use weapons
and they will no longer train for war.
4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear.
The Lord who commands armies has decreed it.
4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods,
we will follow
4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.
4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,
and those far off
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.”
4:8 As for you, watchtower for the flock,
fortress of Daughter Zion
your former dominion will be restored,
the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.
4:9 Jerusalem, why are you
Has your king disappeared?
Has your wise leader
Is this why
4:10 Twist and strain,
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver
from the power
4:11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,
so we can gloat over Zion!”
4:12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;
they do not understand his strategy.
He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed
4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns;
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.”
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler
5:1 (4:14)
We are besieged!
With a scepter
on the side of his face.
5:2 (5:1) As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
seemingly insignificant
from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf,
one whose origins
5:3 So the Lord
until the time when the woman in labor
Then the rest of the king’s
to be reunited with the people of Israel.
5:4 He will assume his post
by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God.
They will live securely,
even in the distant regions of
5:5 He will give us peace.
Should the Assyrians try to invade our land
and attempt to set foot in our fortresses,
we will send
make that eight commanders.
5:6 They will rule
the land of Nimrod
Our king
should they attempt to invade our land
and try to set foot in our territory.
5:7 Those survivors from
in the midst of many nations.
They will be like the dew the Lord sends,
like the rain on the grass,
that does not hope for men to come
or wait around for humans to arrive.
5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples.
They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which attacks when it passes through;
it rips its prey
5:9 Lift your hand triumphantly against your adversaries;
may all your enemies be destroyed!
5:10 “In that day,” says the Lord,
“I will destroy
and smash your chariots.
5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,
and tear down all your fortresses.
5:12 I will remove the sorcery
and you will no longer have omen readers living among you.
5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;
you will no longer worship what your own hands made.
5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah
and destroy your idols.
5:15 I will angrily seek vengeance
on the nations that do not obey me.”