I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁴ 

Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. ¹  Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. ¹  So you brought all this disaster on them.

“From its earliest days Moab has lived undisturbed. It has never been taken into exile. Its people are like wine allowed to settle undisturbed on its dregs, never poured out from one jar to another. They are like wine which tastes like it always did, whose aroma has remained unchanged. ¹ 

I answered, “Oh, Lord God, ¹  I really ²  do not know how to speak well enough for that, ³  for I am too young.” ⁴ 

They will attack you but they will not be able to overcome you, for I will be with you to rescue you,” says the Lord.

Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, ¹  for a god that cannot help them at all! ² 

You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, ¹  by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path. ² 

“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

That is why the rains have been withheld, and the spring rains have not come. Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. ¹  You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

All this will happen because the Lord said, ¹  “The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it.

The Lord commanded the enemy, ¹  “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. ²  But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord. ³ 

Yet even then ¹  I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord.

So ¹  take warning, Jerusalem, or I will abandon you in disgust ²  and make you desolate, a place where no one can live.”

The Lord said, ¹  “I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ²  saying: ‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ³  But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely. But there is too much dross to be removed. ¹  The process of refining them has proved useless. ²  The wicked have not been purged.

But I am not really the one being troubled!” ¹  says the Lord. “Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! ² 

Not one of them will survive. ¹  I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. ²  A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ³ 

My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹  They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests ²  because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” ¹  says the Lord.