The women singing in the temple ¹  will wail in that day.” The sovereign Lord is speaking. “There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ²  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. ¹ 

Make this announcement in ¹  the fortresses of Ashdod and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say this: “Gather on the hills around Samaria! ²  Observe the many acts of violence ³  taking place within the city, ⁴  the oppressive deeds ⁵  occurring in it.” ⁶ 

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

In that day your ¹  beautiful young women ²  and your ³  young men will faint from thirst. ⁴ 

Bravehearted ¹  warriors will run away naked in that day.” The Lord is speaking!

Woe ¹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ²  to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as ³  the elite class of the best nation. The family ⁴  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ⁵ 

“In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut ¹  of David. I will seal its ²  gaps, repair its ³  ruins, and restore it to what it was like in days gone by. ⁴ 

In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through ¹  your midst,” says the Lord.

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

He showed me this: I saw ¹  the sovereign One ²  standing by a tin ³  wall holding tin in his hand.

Because of this the earth ¹  will quake, ²  and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth ³  will rise like the River Nile, ⁴  it will surge upward ⁵  and then grow calm, ⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁷ 

You did not bring me ¹  sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family ²  of Israel.

Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? ¹  Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?

If an alarm sounds ¹  in a city, do people not fear? ²  If disaster overtakes a ³  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁴ 

“They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.) “They store up ¹  the spoils of destructive violence ²  in their fortresses.

Listen to this, you who trample ¹  the needy, and do away with ²  the destitute in the land.

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character: ¹  “Certainly the time is approaching ²  when you will be carried away ³  in baskets, ⁴  every last one of you ⁵  in fishermen’s pots. ⁶ 

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.

They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right ¹  beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple ²  of their God! ³