An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master’s stall, but Isra’el does not know, my people do not reflect.

From the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy, only wounds, bruises and festering sores that haven’t been dressed or bandaged or softened up with oil.

If Adonai-Tzva’ot had not left us a tiny, tiny remnant, we would have become like S’dom, we would have resembled ‘Amora.

He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Then they will hammer their swords into plow-blades and their spears into pruning-knives; nations will not raise swords at each other, and they will no longer learn war.

I will let it go to waste: it will be neither pruned nor hoed, but overgrown with briars and thorns. I will also order the clouds not to let rain fall on it.

The head of Efrayim is Shomron, and the head of Shomron is the son of Remalyah. Without firm faith, you will not be firmly established.”’”

You won’t visit hills once worked with a hoe, for fear of the briars and thorns; it will be good only for pasturing cattle and being trampled down by sheep.

devise a plan, but it will come to nothing; say anything you like, but it won’t happen; because God is with us .

For this is what Adonai said to me, speaking with a strong hand, warning me not to live the way this people does:

“Don’t regard as alliance what this people calls alliance, and don’t fear what they fear or be awestruck by it;

but Adonai-Tzva’ot — consecrate him! Let him be the object of your fear and awe!

Yet the people do not turn to the one striking them, they don’t seek Adonai-Tzva’ot.

so as not to squat among the prisoners or fall among the slain? Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

That is not what Ashur intends, that is not what they think; rather, they mean to destroy, to cut down nation after nation.

My hand found the riches of the peoples like a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth! Not one wing fluttered, not one beak opened or let out a chirp!’”

Should the axe glorify itself over the one who chops with it? Should the saw magnify itself over the one who moves it? It’s as if a stick could wave the hand that raises it up, or as if a wooden staff could lift [a person, who is] not made of wood.

The Spirit of Adonai will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fearing Adonai —

he will be inspired by fearing Adonai. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear,

They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of the knowledge of Adonai as water covering the sea.

Their bows will tear young men to pieces, they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye will not spare children.”

It will never again be inhabited, never lived in through all generations. Arabs will not pitch tents there nor shepherds bring their flocks.

Jackals will howl in their palaces and wild dogs in their temples of delight. Its time is close at hand, its days will not last long.

who made the world a desert, who destroyed its cities, who would not set his prisoners free?’

You will not be joined with those kings in the grave, because you destroyed your own land, you have brought death to your own people. The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.

Do not rejoice, P’leshet, any of you, that the rod which struck you is broken; for out of the snake’s root will come a viper, and his offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.