The women singing in the temple will wail in that day.” The sovereign Lord is speaking. “There will be many corpses littered everywhere! Be quiet!”

In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon, and make the earth dark in the middle of the day.

Make this announcement in the fortresses of Ashdod and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say this: “Gather on the hills around Samaria! Observe the many acts of violence taking place within the city, the oppressive deeds occurring in it.”

If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.

In that day your beautiful young women and your young men will faint from thirst.

Bravehearted warriors will run away naked in that day.” The Lord is speaking!

Woe to those who live in ease in Zion, to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as the elite class of the best nation. The family of Israel looks to them for leadership.

“In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut of David. I will seal its gaps, repair its ruins, and restore it to what it was like in days gone by.

In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

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

He showed me this: I saw the sovereign One standing by a tin wall holding tin in his hand.

Because of this the earth will quake, and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth will rise like the River Nile, it will surge upward and then grow calm, like the Nile in Egypt.

You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel.

Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?

If an alarm sounds in a city, do people not fear? If disaster overtakes a city, is the Lord not responsible?

“They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.) “They store up the spoils of destructive violence in their fortresses.

Listen to this, you who trample the needy, and do away with the destitute in the land.

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: “Certainly the time is approaching when you will be carried away in baskets, every last one of you in fishermen’s pots.

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

They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God!