For Syria’s leader is Damascus, and the leader of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. ¹ 

Ephraim’s leader is Samaria, and Samaria’s leader is the son of Remaliah. If your faith does not remain firm, then you will not remain secure.” ¹ 

¹ Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? ²  Your head has a massive wound, ³  your whole body is weak. ⁴ 

So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail, both the shoots and stalk ¹  in one day.

The leaders and the highly respected people ¹  are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Egypt will not be able to do a thing, head or tail, shoots and stalk. ¹ 

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?

Let the desert and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live! Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

From the soles of your feet to your head, there is no spot that is unharmed. ¹  There are only bruises, cuts, and open wounds. They have not been cleansed ²  or bandaged, nor have they been treated ³  with olive oil. ⁴ 

In the future ¹  the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ²  as the most important of mountains, and will be the most prominent of hills. ³  All the nations will stream to it,

At that time ¹  the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, ²  the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; ³  it will also shave off the beard.

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

There will be some left behind, like when an olive tree is beaten – two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches,” says the Lord God of Israel.

The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards is doomed, ¹  the withering flower, its beautiful splendor, ²  situated ³  at the head of a rich valley, the crown of those overcome with wine. ⁴ 

For the Lord has poured out on you a strong urge to sleep deeply. ¹  He has shut your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹  They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, ²  happiness and joy will overwhelm ³  them; grief and suffering will disappear. ⁴ 

this is what the Lord says about him: ¹  “The virgin daughter Zion ²  despises you – she makes fun of you; daughter Jerusalem shakes her head after you. ³ 

Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹  Who ²  summons the successive generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning, and at the very end – I am the one. ³ 

Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ¹  ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’? Indeed, none of them decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything!

Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, ¹  I am there.” So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit. ²