But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Know for certain that the Lord has spoken.

The powerful will be like a thread of yarn, their deeds like a spark; both will burn together, and no one will put out the fire.

Proud men will be brought low, arrogant men will be humiliated; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

Oppressors treat my people cruelly; creditors rule over them. My people’s leaders mislead them; they give you confusing directions.

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” The sovereign Lord who commands armies has spoken.

They say, “Let him hurry, let him act quickly, so we can see; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take shape and come to pass, then we will know it!”

They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.”

Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted! Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! For God is with us!

The people did not return to the one who struck them, they did not seek reconciliation with the Lord who commands armies.

As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”

The sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is certainly ready to carry out the decreed destruction throughout the land.

This very day, standing in Nob, they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain – at the hill of Jerusalem.

How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure; the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

We have heard about Moab’s pride, their great arrogance, their boasting, pride, and excess. But their boastful claims are empty!

The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear in the day of disease and incurable pain.

In the evening there is sudden terror; by morning they vanish. This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us!

All you who live in the world, who reside on the earth, you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains; you will hear a trumpet being blown.

Egypt will not be able to do a thing, head or tail, shoots and stalk.

O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, what I have heard from the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but then night. If you want to ask, ask; come back again.”