Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, ¹  and the religious banquets ²  where they sprawl on couches ³  will end.

For this reason whoever is smart ¹  keeps quiet ²  in such a time, for it is an evil ³  time.

“I have chosen ¹  you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Therefore,” says the sovereign Lord, “an enemy will encircle the land. ¹  He will take away your power; ²  your fortresses will be looted.”

Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ¹  Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ²  For you love to do this, you Israelites.” The sovereign Lord is speaking!

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel. Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel! ¹ 

Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.

This is what the Lord says: “Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion’s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged. ¹  They will be left with just a corner of a bed, ²  and a part ³  of a couch.”

Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops ¹  and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine ²  vineyards you planted. ³ 

Because of Israel’s sins ¹  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²  says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ³  They will tell the field workers ⁴  to lament and the professional mourners ⁵  to wail.

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets ¹  and your sons and daughters will die violently. ²  Your land will be given to others ³  and you will die in a foreign ⁴  land. Israel will certainly be carried into exile ⁵  away from its land.’”