I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob, I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ¹  I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ²  like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ³  they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ⁴ 

Listen, all you nations! ¹  Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ²  The sovereign Lord will testify ³  against you; the Lord will accuse you ⁴  from his majestic palace. ⁵ 

Jerusalem, why are you ¹  now shouting so loudly? ²  Has your king disappeared? ³  Has your wise leader ⁴  been destroyed? Is this why ⁵  pain grips ⁶  you as if you were a woman in labor?

“I will not overlook, ¹  O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, ²  or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. ³ 

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ¹  For this land is not secure! ²  Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ³ 

Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple ¹  of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his commands ²  and we can live by his laws.” ³  For Zion will be the source of instruction; the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ⁴ 

In the future ¹  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ²  it will be more prominent than other hills. ³  People will stream to it.

When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame. They say ¹  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” I will gloat over them. ²  Then they will be trampled down ³  like mud in the streets.

Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ¹  it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ²  The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ³ 

‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ¹  ‘These prophets should not preach of such things; we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ² 

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 ¹  at the threshing floor.

The earth will become desolate ¹  because of what its inhabitants have done. ² 

You implement the regulations of Omri, and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ¹  you follow their policies. ²  Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ³  the city’s ⁴  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ⁵  and nations will mock all of you.” ⁶ 

Does the family ¹  of Jacob say, ²  ‘The Lord’s patience ³  can’t be exhausted – he would never do such things’? ⁴  To be sure, my commands bring a reward for those who obey them, ⁵ 

This is what the Lord says: “The prophets who mislead my people are as good as dead. ¹  If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. ²  But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him. ³ 

So the Lord ¹  will hand the people of Israel ²  over to their enemies ³  until the time when the woman in labor ⁴  gives birth. ⁵  Then the rest of the king’s ⁶  countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel. ⁷ 

Will the Lord accept a thousand rams, or ten thousand streams of olive oil? Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion, my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? ¹ 

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹  government officials and judges take bribes, ²  prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³ 

Don’t spread the news in Gath! ¹  Don’t shed even a single tear! ²  In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! ³ 

Therefore no one will assign you land in the Lord’s community. ¹