Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus? ¹ 

If you have a willing attitude and obey, ¹  then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

¹ Come, let’s consider your options,” ²  says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become ³  white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become ⁴  white like wool. ⁵ 

Has the Lord struck down Israel like he did their oppressors? ¹  Has Israel been killed like their enemies? ² 

Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. ¹  Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened. ² 

The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but then night. ¹  If you want to ask, ask; come back again.” ² 

Look, I have decreed: ¹  I will not keep silent, but will pay them back; I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ² 

“Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?” asks the Lord. “Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?” asks your God. ¹ 

At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will wash the excrement ³  from Zion’s women, he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ⁴  as he comes to judge and to bring devastation. ⁵ 

The Lord who commands armies told me this: ¹  “Many houses will certainly become desolate, large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ² 

I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated,

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 

Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it, or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ¹  As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it, or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ¹  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ²  Destruction has been decreed; ³  just punishment ⁴  is about to engulf you. ⁵ 

¹ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow: “Be sure of this: Just as I have intended, so it will be; just as I have planned, it will happen.

The Lord who commands armies told me this: ¹  “Certainly this sin will not be forgiven as long as you live,” ²  says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

This is what will happen throughout ¹  the earth, among the nations. It will be like when they beat an olive tree, and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest. ² 

Once he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant, sow the seed of the cumin plant, and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places? ¹ 

Your thinking is perverse! ¹  Should the potter be regarded as clay? ²  Should the thing made say ³  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.