“But surely I gave ¹  you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live. ²  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

People from ¹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ²  water, but remained thirsty. ³  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

I made some of your sons prophets and some of your young men Nazirites. ¹  Is this not true, you Israelites?” The Lord is speaking!

I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ¹  The houses filled with ivory ²  will be ruined, the great ³  houses will be swept away.” ⁴  The Lord is speaking!

Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; ¹  you will be thrown out ²  toward Harmon.” ³  The Lord is speaking!

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!”

As a result they ¹  will conquer those left in Edom ²  and all the nations subject to my rule.” ³  The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!

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!

“I destroyed your crops ¹  with blight and disease. Locusts kept ²  devouring your orchards, ³  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

“I overthrew some of you the way God ¹  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²  You were like a burning stick ³  snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ¹  The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking: “I despise Jacob’s arrogance; I hate their ²  fortresses. I will hand over to their enemies ³  the city of Samaria ⁴  and everything in it.”

“Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

I will break the bar ¹  on the gate of Damascus. I will remove ²  the ruler ³  from Wicked Valley, ⁴  the one who holds the royal scepter from Beth Eden. ⁵  The people of Aram will be deported to Kir.” ⁶  The Lord has spoken!

Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ²  from the land of Egypt:

“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹  I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses ²  rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

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.

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

Woe ¹  to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.