Bible in 90 Days

“Go, marry a whore,
and have children with this whore;
for the land is engaged in flagrant whoring,
whoring away from Adonai.”

^3 (1) “Say to your brothers, ‘Ammi [My People]!’
and to your sisters, ‘Ruchamah [Pitied]!’
^4 (2) Rebuke your mother, rebuke her;
for she isn’t my wife, and I’m not her husband.
She must remove her whoring from her face,
and her adulteries from between her breasts.
^5 (3) Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and place her as she was the day she was born,
make her like a desert, place her like a dry land
and kill her with thirst.
^6 (4) I will have no pity on her children,
for they are children of whoring —
^7 (5) their mother prostituted herself,
she who conceived them behaved shamelessly;
she said, ‘I will pursue my lovers,
who give me my food and water,
wool, flax, olive oil and wine.’
^8 (6) Therefore, I will block her way with thorns
and put up a hedge so she can’t find her paths.
^9 (7) She will pursue her lovers but not catch them.
She will seek them but won’t find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go
and return to my first husband;
because things were better for me then
than they are now.’
^10 (8) For she doesn’t know it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine and the oil;
I who increased her silver and gold,
which they used for Ba‘al.
^11 (9) So I will take back my grain at harvest-time
and my wine in its season;
I will snatch away my wool and flax,
given to cover her naked body.
^12 (10) Now I will uncover her shame,
while her lovers watch;
and no one will save her from me.
^13 (11) I will end her happiness,
her festivals, Rosh-Hodesh, and shabbats,
and all her designated times.
^14 (12) I will ravage her vines and fig trees,
of which she says, ‘These are my wages
that my lovers have given me.’
But I will turn them into a forest,
and wild animals will eat them.
^15 (13) I will punish her for offering incense
on the feast days of the ba‘alim,
when she decked herself with her earrings and jewels,
pursuing her lovers and forgetting me,” says Adonai.
^16 (14) “But now I am going to woo her —
I will bring her out to the desert
and I will speak to her heart.
^17 (15) I will give her her vineyards from there
and the Akhor Valley as a gateway to hope.
She will respond there as she did when young,
as she did when she came up from Egypt.

^18 (16) “On that day,” says Adonai
“you will call me Ishi [My Husband];
you will no longer call me Ba‘ali [My Master].
^19 (17) For I will remove the names
of the ba‘alim from her mouth;
they will never again be mentioned by name.
^20 (18) When that day comes, I will make
a covenant for them
with the wild animals, the birds in the air
and the creeping things of the earth.
I will break bow and sword,
sweep battle from the land,
and make them lie down securely.
^21 (19) I will betroth you to me forever;
yes, I will betroth you to me
in righteousness, in justice,
in grace and in compassion;
^22 (20) I will betroth you to me in faithfulness,
and you will know Adonai.
^23 (21) When that day comes,
I will answer,” says Adonai
“I will answer the sky,
and it will answer the earth;
^24 (22) the earth will answer the corn, wine and oil,
and they will answer Yizre‘el [God will sow].
^25 (23) I will sow her for me in the land.
I will have pity on Lo-Ruchamah [Unpitied];
I will say to Lo-‘Ammi [Not-My-People], ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

“I will destroy your mother.
⁶ My people are destroyed for want of knowledge.
Because you rejected knowledge,
I will also reject you as cohen for me.
Because you forgot the Torah of your God,
I will also forget your children.
⁷ The more they increased in number,
the more they sinned against me.
I will change their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people
and are greedy for their crimes.
⁹ But the cohen will fare
no better than the people;
I will punish him for his ways
and pay him back for his deeds.
¹⁰ They will eat but not have enough
and consort with whores but have no children,
because they stopped listening to Adonai.
¹¹ Whoring and wine, both old and new,
take away my people’s wits.
¹² My people consult their piece of wood,
their diviner’s wand speaks to them;
for the spirit of whoring makes them err,
they go off whoring, deserting their God.
¹³ They sacrifice on the mountain peaks
and offer incense on the hills
under oaks, poplars and pistachio trees;
because they give good shade.
Therefore your daughters behave like whores,
And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
¹⁴ I won’t punish your daughters when they act like whores,
or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;
because the men are themselves going off with whores
and sacrificing with prostitutes.
Yes, a people without understanding
will come to ruin.”

¹⁵ If you, Isra’el, prostitute yourself,
still Y’hudah has no need to incur such guilt.
Don’t go to Gilgal or up to Beit-Aven,
and don’t swear, “As Adonai lives.”
¹⁶ For Isra’el is stubborn as a stubborn cow;
will Adonai now feed them like a lamb in a big pasture?
¹⁷ Efrayim is joined to idols;
let him alone!
¹⁸ When they finish carousing, they start their whoring;
their rulers deeply love dishonor.
¹⁹ The wind will carry them off in its wings
and their sacrifices bring them nothing but shame.

5 “Hear this, cohanim!
Pay attention, house of Isra’el!
Listen, house of the king!
For judgment is coming to you.
You have become a snare for Mitzpah
and a net spread on Tavor.
² The rebels have deepened their slaughter,
and I am rejected by all of them.

³ “I know Efrayim;
Isra’el is not hidden from me;
for now, Efrayim, you are a whore;
Isra’el is defiled.”

⁴ Their deeds will not allow them
to return to their God,
for the spirit of whoring is in them,
and they don’t know Adonai.
⁵ Isra’el’s arrogance will testify in his face;
Isra’el and Efrayim will stumble in their crimes;
Y’hudah too will stumble with them.
⁶ With their flocks and herds
they will go in search of Adonai.
But they won’t find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have betrayed Adonai,
by fathering foreign children.
Now within the month the invaders
will devour their lands.

⁸ “Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,
a trumpet at Ramah;
sound an alarm at Beit-Aven:
‘Behind you, Binyamin!’
⁹ Efrayim will be laid waste
when the day for punishment comes;
I am announcing to the tribes of Isra’el
what will surely happen.
¹⁰ The leaders of Y’hudah are like men
who move boundary stones;
I will pour my fury out
upon them like water.
¹¹ Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment,
because he deliberately sought out futility.
¹² Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim
and like rottenness to the house of Y’hudah.
¹³ When Efrayim saw his sickness
and Y’hudah his wound,
Efrayim went to Ashur
and sent envoys to a warring king;
but he can’t heal you
or cure your wound.
¹⁴ For to Efrayim I will be like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Y’hudah —
I will tear them up and go away;
I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.
¹⁵ I will go and return to my place,
till they admit their guilt and search for me,
seeking me eagerly in their distress.”

6 Come, let us return to Adonai;
for he has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck, and he will bind our wounds.
² After two days, he will revive us;
on the third day, he will raise us up;
and we will live in his presence.
³ Let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.
That he will come is as certain as morning;
he will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rains that water the earth.
⁴ “Efrayim, what should I do to you?
Y’hudah, what should I do to you?
For your ‘faithful love’ is like a morning cloud,
like dew that disappears quickly.
⁵ This is why I have cut them to pieces by the prophets,
slaughtered them with the words from my mouth —
the judgment on you shines out like light.
⁶ For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices,
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷ “But they, just like men, have broken the covenant,
they have been faithless in dealing with me.
⁸ Gil‘ad is a city of criminals,
covered with bloody footprints;
⁹ just as bands of robbers wait to ambush someone,
so does a gang of cohanim.
They commit murder on the road to Sh’khem!
Their conduct is an outrage!
¹⁰ In the house of Isra’el
I have seen a horrible thing;
whoring is found there in Efrayim,
Isra’el is defiled.
¹¹ For you, too, Y’hudah,
a harvest will come!

“When I restore the fortunes of my people,
7 when I am ready to heal Isra’el,
the crimes of Efrayim confront me,
along with the wickedness of Shomron.
For they keep practicing deceit;
thieves break in, bands of robbers raid outside.
² They never say to themselves
that I remember all their evil.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are right in front of me.
³ They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the leaders with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by the baker,
who doesn’t stoke the fire
from kneading time till the dough has risen.

⁵ “On their king’s special day
the leaders inflame him with wine,
and he joins hands with scorners,
⁶ who ready themselves like an oven
while they wait for their chance.
Their baker sleeps through the night;
then in the morning it bursts into flame.
⁷ They are all as hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen;
not one of them calls out to me.

⁸ “Efrayim mixes himself with the peoples,
Efrayim has become a half-baked cake.
⁹ Foreigners have eaten up his strength,
but he doesn’t know it;
yes, gray hairs appear on him here and there,
but he doesn’t know it.
¹⁰ The pride of Isra’el testifies in his face,
but in spite of all this they haven’t returned
to Adonai their God or sought him.
¹¹ Efrayim behaves like a silly, foolish dove —
going to Egypt, then to Ashur for help.
¹² Even as they go, I will spread my net over them;
I will bring them down like birds from the sky;
I will discipline them, as their assembly was told.
¹³ Woe to them! for they have strayed from me.
Destruction to them! for they have wronged me.
Am I supposed to redeem them,
when they have spoken lies against me?
¹⁴ They have not cried out to me from their hearts,
even though they wail on their beds.
They assemble themselves for grain and wine,
yet turn away from me.
¹⁵ It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward;
they are like an unreliable bow.
Their leaders will die by the sword
because of their angry talk.
They will become a laughingstock
in the land of Egypt.

8 “Put the shofar to your lips!
Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of Adonai,
because they have violated my covenant
and sinned intentionally against my Torah.
² Will they cry out to me,
‘We are Isra’el, God, we know you’?
³ Isra’el has thrown away what is good;
the enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They make kings, but without my authority;
they appoint leaders, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they make themselves idols,
but these can lead only to their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf, Shomron, has been thrown away;
my fury burns against them.
How long will it be until they are able
to make themselves clean?
⁶ Here is what Isra’el produces:
a craftsman makes something — it’s a non-god;
the calf of Shomron will be broken to pieces.
⁷ For they sow the wind,
so they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no ears,
so it will yield no flour;
and if it does yield any,
foreigners will swallow it up.
⁸ Isra’el is swallowed up;
now they are among the Goyim
like a vessel nobody wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Ashur;
like a wild donkey, alone by itself,
Efrayim has bargained for lovers.
¹⁰ But even if they bargain among the Goyim,
now I will round them up.
Soon they will start to feel the burden
of these kings and leaders.
¹¹ For Efrayim keeps building altars for sin;
yes, altars are sinful for him.
¹² I write him so many things from my Torah,
yet he considers them foreign.
¹³ They offer me sacrifices of flesh and eat them,
but Adonai does not accept them.
Now he will recall their crimes and punish their sins —
they will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For Isra’el forgot his maker and built palaces;
and Y’hudah made more fortified cities;
but I will send fire on his cities,
and it will consume their strongholds.”

9 Don’t rejoice, Isra’el!
Don’t enjoy yourselves as other peoples do;
for you have gone whoring away from your God,
you love being hired as a whore on every grain-floor.
² Threshing-floor and winepress won’t feed them,
and new wine will disappoint her.
³ They won’t remain in the land of Adonai;
instead, Efrayim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Ashur.
⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to Adonai;
they will not be pleasing to him.
Their sacrifices will be for them like mourners’ food —
everyone eating it will be polluted.
For their food will be merely to satisfy their appetite;
it will not come into the house of Adonai.
⁵ What will you do at a designated time,
on a day which is a festival for Adonai?
⁶ For suppose they escape the destruction —
Egypt will round them up,
Memphis will bury them.
And their precious treasures of silver?
Nettles will possess them,
thorns will be in their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment have come,
the days of retribution are here,
and Isra’el knows it.
[Yet they cry,] “The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit has gone crazy!”
Because your iniquity is so great,
the hostility [against you] is great.
⁸ The watchman of Efrayim is with my God,
but a prophet has a fowler’s snare set on all his paths
and hostility even in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves,
as in the days of Giv‘ah.
He will remember their guilt,
and he will punish their sins.

¹⁰ “When I found Isra’el, it was like finding
grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing
a fig tree’s first figs in its first season.
But as soon as they came to Ba‘al-P‘or,
they dedicated themselves to something shameful;
they became as loathsome
as the thing they loved.
¹¹ The glory of Efrayim will fly away like a bird —
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² Even if they raise their children,
I will destroy them till none is left —
and woe to them when I leave them, too!”

¹³ Efrayim, as I see it, is like Tzor,
planted in a pleasant place;
but Efrayim will bring out his children
to the slaughterer.
¹⁴ Adonai, give them — what will you give?
Give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts!
¹⁵ “All their wickedness was already there in Gilgal;
that’s where I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will expel them from my house,
I will love them no more;
all their leaders are rebels.
¹⁶ Efrayim has been struck down,
their root has been dried up,
they will bear no fruit.
Even if they do give birth,
I will kill their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷ My God will cast them aside,
because they wouldn’t listen to him,
and they will become wanderers
among the Goyim.

10 Isra’el was a luxuriant vine,
freely putting forth fruit.
As his fruit increased,
he increased his altars;
as his land got better,
he improved his standing-stones.
² Their heart is divided;
now they will bear their guilt.
He will break down their altars
and destroy their standing-stones.
³ For now they will say,
“We have no king,
because we didn’t fear Adonai —
and what could a king do for us, anyway?”
⁴ They mouth words,
swearing falsely, making treaties.
Thus judgment spreads like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of a field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Shomron are frightened
of the calf-gods of Beit-Aven.
Its people mourn over it;
its priests tremble over it,
over its glory, which has left it.
⁶ It will be carried to Ashur
as a present for a warring king.
Efrayim will be put to shame,
and Isra’el be ashamed of his own advice.
⁷ Shomron’s king will perish
like foam on the surface of the water.
⁸ Destruction will come to the high places of Aven,
that is, to the sin of Isra’el.
Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars;
and they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹ “Since the days of Giv‘ah you have sinned, Isra’el.
There they took their stand.
For these arrogant people at Giv‘ah,
war was insufficient punishment.
¹⁰ When I wish to, I will discipline them;
and the peoples will be gathered against them
to discipline them for their two crimes.”

¹¹ Efrayim is a well-taught cow —
it loves to tread the grain,
and I have spared her fair neck.
But I will put Efrayim in harness,
Y’hudah will have to plow,
Ya‘akov will harrow his own land.
¹² If you sow righteousness for yourselves,
you will reap according to grace.
Break up unused ground for yourselves,
because it is time to seek Adonai,
till he comes and rains down
righteousness upon you.
¹³ You have plowed wickedness, reaped iniquity
and eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you trusted in your own way,
in your large numbers of warriors,
¹⁴ turmoil will erupt among your peoples,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed;
just as Shalman destroyed Beit-Arbel
on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to pieces
right along with their children.
¹⁵ Thus will be done to you, Beit-El,
because of your great wickedness;
at dawn the king of Isra’el
will be completely cut off.

11 “When Isra’el was a child, I loved him;
and out of Egypt I called my son.
² But the more [the prophets] called them,
the farther they went from them.
They sacrificed to the ba‘alim
and offered incense to idols.
³ “Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk;
I took them by their arms.
But they did not know that it was I
who was healing them,
⁴ who was guiding them on through human means
with reins made of love.
With them I was like someone removing
the yoke from their jaws,
and I bent down to feed them.
⁵ He will not return to the land of Egypt,
but Ashur will be his king,
because they refused to repent.
⁶ The sword will fall on his cities,
destroying the bars of his gates,
because they follow their own advice.
⁷ My people are hanging in suspense
about returning to me;
and though they call them upwards,
nobody makes a move.
⁸ Efrayim, how can I give you up,
or surrender you, Isra’el?
How could I treat you like Admah
or make you like Tzvoyim?
My heart recoils at the idea,
as compassion warms within me.
⁹ I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage,
I will not return to destroy Efrayim;
for I am God, not a human being,
the Holy One among you;
so I will not come in fury.
¹⁰ They will go after Adonai,
who will roar like a lion;
for he will roar, and the children will come
trembling from the west.
¹¹ They will tremble like a bird as they come from Egypt,
like a dove as they come from the land of Ashur;
and I will resettle them in their own houses,

says Adonai.

12 ^(11:12) “Efrayim surrounds me with lies
and the house of Isra’el with deceit.
Y’hudah still rules with God
and is faithful with holy ones.
^2 (1) Efrayim is chasing the wind,
pursuing the wind from the east.
All day he piles up lies and desolation —
they make a covenant with Ashur,
while sending olive oil to Egypt.

^3 (2) Adonai also has a grievance against Y’hudah;
he will punish Ya‘akov according to his ways
and pay him back for his misdeeds.
^4 (3) In the womb he took his brother by the heel;
in the strength of his manhood he fought with God.
^5 (4) Yes, he fought with an angel and won;
he wept and pleaded with him.
Then at Beit-El he found him,
and there he would [later] speak with us —
^6 (5) Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot;
Adonai is his name!
^7 (6) So you, return to your God;
hold fast to grace and justice;
and always put your hope in your God.

^8 (7) “A huckster keeps false scales,
and he loves to cheat.
^9 (8) Efrayim says, ‘I have gotten so rich!
I have made me a fortune!
And in all my profits no one will find
anything wrong or sinful.’

^10 (9) “But I am Adonai your God,
from the land of Egypt.
Again I will make you live in tents,
as in the days of the established festival.
^11 (10) I have spoken to the prophets;
it was I who gave vision after vision;
through the prophets I gave examples
to show what it would all be like.
^12 (11) Is Gil‘ad given to iniquity?
Yes, they have become worthless.
In Gilgal they sacrifice to bulls;
therefore their altars are like piles of stones
in a plowed field.”

^13 (12) Ya‘akov fled to the land of Aram.
There Isra’el slaved to win a wife;
for a wife he tended sheep.
^14 (13) By a prophet Adonai brought Isra’el up from Egypt,
and by a prophet he was protected.
^15 (14) Efrayim has given bitter provocation,
so the penalty for his bloodshed will be thrown down on him,
and his Lord will repay him for his insult.
13 “When Efrayim spoke, there was trembling;
he was a power in Isra’el.
But when he incurred guilt through Ba‘al,
he died.
² So now they keep adding sin to sin,
casting images from their silver;
idols they invent for themselves,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
‘Sacrifice to them,’ they say.
Men give kisses to calves!
³ Therefore they will be like a morning cloud,
like the dew that disappears early,
like chaff blown by wind from the threshing-floor,
or like smoke that goes out the window.
⁴ Still, I am Adonai your God,
from the land of Egypt;
and you don’t know any God but me
or, other than me, any Savior.
⁵ I knew you in the desert,
in a land of terrible drought.
⁶ When they were fed, they were satisfied;
when satisfied, they became proud.
Therefore they forgot me.
⁷ So now I have become like a lion to them;
like a leopard I will lurk by the road;
⁸ I will meet them like a bear
whose cubs have been taken away.
I will tear their hearts from their bodies.
I will devour them there like a lion,
like a wild animal ripping them up.
⁹ It is your destruction, Isra’el,
although your help is in me.
¹⁰ So now, where is your king,
to save you in all your cities?
Where are your judges, of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and leaders’?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger;
and in my fury I took him away.

¹² “Efrayim’s guilt has been wrapped up,
his sin is stored away.
¹³ The pain of being born will come to him;
but he is an unwise son.
The time has come; and he shouldn’t delay,
there at the mouth of the womb.
¹⁴ Should I ransom them from the power of Sh’ol?
Should I redeem them from death?
Where are your plagues, death;
where is your destruction, Sh’ol?
My eyes are closed to compassion.
¹⁵ For though he flourishes among the reeds,
an east wind will come, a wind from Adonai,
blowing up from the desert.
Then his water source will dry up,
then his spring will fail —
it will plunder his treasury,
removing every precious thing.”

14 ^(13:16) Shomron will bear her guilt,
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their little ones will be dashed to pieces
and their pregnant women ripped open.
^2 (1) Return, Isra’el, to Adonai your God,
for your guilt has made you stumble.
^3 (2) Take words with you, and return to Adonai;
say to him, “Forgive all guilt,
and accept what is good;
we will pay instead of bulls
[the offerings of] our lips.
^4 (3) Ashur will not save us,
we will not ride on horses,
and we will no longer call
what we made with our hands our gods.
For it is only in you
that the fatherless can find mercy.”

^5 (4) “I will heal their disloyalty,
I will love them freely;
for my anger has turned from him.
^6 (5) I will be like dew to Isra’el;
he will blossom like a lily
and strike roots like the L’vanon.
^7 (6) His branches will spread out,
his beauty be like an olive tree
and his fragrance like the L’vanon.
^8 (7) Again they will live in his shade and raise grain;
they will blossom like a vine,
and its aroma will be
like the wine of the L’vanon.
^9 (8) Efrayim [will say], ‘What have I
to do any more with idols?’
And I, I answer and affirm him;
I am like a fresh, green cypress tree;
your fruitfulness comes from me.”
^10 (9) Let the wise understand these things,
and let the discerning know them.
For the ways of Adonai are straight,
And the righteous walk in them,
but in them sinners stumble.

² “Hear this, you leaders!
Listen, all who live in the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your days,
or in your ancestors’ days?
³ Tell your children about it,
and have them tell it to theirs,
and have them tell the next generation.
⁴ What the cutter-worms left, the locusts ate;
what the locusts left, the grasshoppers ate;
what the grasshoppers left, the shearer-worms ate.
⁵ Wake up, drunkards, and weep!
wail, all you who drink wine,
because the juice of the grape
will be withheld from your mouth.
⁶ For a mighty and numberless nation
has invaded my land.
His teeth are lion’s teeth;
his fangs are those of a lioness.
⁷ He has reduced my vines to waste,
my fig trees to splinters —
he plucked them bare, stripped their bark
and left their branches white.”

⁸ Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the husband of her youth!
⁹ Grain offering and drink offering are cut off
from the house of Adonai.
The cohanim are mourning,
those who are serving Adonai.
¹⁰ The fields are ruined, the ground is grieving;
for the grain is ruined, the new wine dried up,
and the olive oil is wretched.
¹¹ Despair, you farmers; lament, vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley —
the harvest from the fields is lost.
¹² The vines have withered, the fig trees wilted,
also the pomegranate, date-palm and apple tree —
all the trees in the fields have withered,
and the people’s joy has withered away.
¹³ Cohanim, put on sackcloth, and weep!
Wail, you who serve at the altar!
Come, lie in sackcloth all night long,
you who serve my God!
For the grain offering and drink offering are withheld
from the house of your God.
¹⁴ Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly,
gather the leaders
and all who live in the land
to the house of Adonai your God,
and cry out to Adonai,

¹⁵ “Oh no! The Day!
The Day of Adonai is upon us!
As destruction from Shaddai
it is coming!
¹⁶ The food is cut off before our very eyes,
also joy and gladness from the house of our God.
¹⁷ The seed-grain is rotting in its furrows;
the granaries are deserted, the barns in ruins;
because the grain has withered.
¹⁸ How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep bear the punishment, too.
¹⁹ Adonai, I cry out to you!
For the fire has consumed the pastures in the desert,
and the flame set ablaze all the trees in the fields.
²⁰ Even the wild animals
come to you, panting,
because the streambeds have dried up,
and fire has consumed the pastures in the desert.”

2 “Blow the shofar in Tziyon!
Sound an alarm on my holy mountain!”
Let all living in the land tremble,
for the Day of Adonai is coming! It’s upon us! —
² a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick fog;
a great and mighty horde is spreading
like blackness over the mountains.
There has never been anything like it,
nor will there ever be again,
not even after the years
of many generations.
³ Ahead of them a fire devours,
behind them a flame consumes;
ahead the land is like Gan-‘Eden,
behind them a desert waste.
From them there is no escape.
⁴ They look like horses,
and like cavalry they charge.
⁵ With a rumble like that of chariots
they leap over the mountaintops,
like crackling flames devouring stubble,
like a mighty horde in battle array.
⁶ At their presence the peoples writhe in anguish,
every face is drained of color.
⁷ Like warriors they charge,
they scale the wall like soldiers.
Each one keeps to his own course,
without getting in the other’s way.
⁸ They don’t jostle each other,
but stay on their own paths;
they burst through defenses unharmed,
without even breaking rank.
⁹ They rush into the city,
they run along the wall,
they climb up into the houses,
entering like a thief through the windows.
¹⁰ At their advance the earth quakes,
and the sky shakes,
the sun and moon turn black,
and the stars stop shining.
¹¹ Adonai shouts orders to his forces —
his army is immense, mighty,
and it does what he says.
For great is the Day of Adonai, fearsome,
terrifying! Who can endure it?

¹² “Yet even now,” says Adonai,
“turn to me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping and lamenting.”
¹³ Tear your heart, not your garments;
and turn to Adonai your God.
For he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger, rich in grace,
and willing to change his mind about disaster.
¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn, change his mind
and leave a blessing behind him,
[enough for] grain offerings and drink offerings
to present to Adonai your God.

¹⁵ “Blow the shofar in Tziyon!
Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly.”

¹⁶ Gather the people; consecrate the congregation;
assemble the leaders; gather the children,
even infants sucking at the breast;
let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride the bridal chamber.
¹⁷ Let the cohanim, who serve Adonai,
stand weeping between the vestibule and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Adonai!
Don’t expose your heritage to mockery,
or make them a byward among the Goyim.
Why should the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁸ Then Adonai will become jealous for his land
and have pity on his people.
¹⁹ Here is how Adonai will answer his people:
“I will send you grain, wine and olive oil,
enough to satisfy you;
and no longer will I make you
a mockery among the Goyim.
²⁰ No, I will take the northerner away,
far away from you,
and drive him to a land
that is waste and barren;
with his vanguard toward the eastern sea
and his rearguard toward the western sea,
his stench and his rottenness will rise,
because he has done great things.”

²¹ Don’t fear, O soil; be glad! rejoice!
for Adonai has done great things.
²² Don’t be afraid, wild animals;
for the desert pastures are green,
the trees are putting out their fruit,
the fig tree and vine are giving full yield.
²³ Be glad, people of Tziyon!
rejoice in Adonai your God!
For he is giving you
the right amount of rain in the fall,
he makes the rain come down for you,
the fall and spring rains — this is what he does first.
²⁴ Then the floors will be full of grain
and the vats overflow with wine and olive oil.

²⁵ “I will restore to you the years that the locusts ate,
the grasshoppers, shearer-worms and cutter-worms,
my great army that I sent against you.
²⁶ You will eat until you are satisfied
and will praise the name of Adonai your God,
who has done with you such wonders.
Then my people will never again be shamed.
²⁷ You will know that I am with Isra’el
and that I am Adonai your God,
and that there is no other.
Then my people will never again be shamed.

3 ^(2:28) “After this, I will pour out
my Spirit on all humanity.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions;
^2 (2:29) and also on male and female slaves
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
^3 (2:30) I will show wonders in the sky and on earth —
blood, fire and columns of smoke.
^4 (2:31) The sun will be turned into darkness
and the moon into blood
before the coming of the great
and terrible Day of Adonai.”

^5 (2:32) At that time, whoever calls
on the name of Adonai will be saved.
For in Mount Tziyon and Yerushalayim
there will be those who escape,
as Adonai has promised;
among the survivors will be those
whom Adonai has called.

4 (3)  “For then, at that time, when I restore
the fortunes of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim,
² I will gather all nations and bring them down
to the Valley of Y’hoshafat [Adonai judges].
I will enter into judgment there
for my people, my heritage Isra’el,
whom they scattered among the nations;
then they divided my land.
³ They drew lots for my people,
traded boys for whores,
sold girls for wine to drink.

⁴ “Moreover, what have you against me,
Tzor, Tzidon, all parts of P’leshet?
Are you paying me back for something I did?
If you’re paying me back for something I did,
then easily, quickly, I’ll pay you back
right on your own head.
⁵ You took my silver and gold.
You brought my good treasures into your temples.
⁶ The people of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim
you sold to the Greeks, so that you could remove them
far away from their land.
⁷ I will rouse them from the place where you sold them
and pay you back right on your own head —
⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters
to the people of Y’hudah;
and they will sell them to the men of Sh’va,
a nation far off; for Adonai has spoken.

⁹ “Proclaim this among the nations:
‘Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men approach and attack.’
¹⁰ Hammer your plow-blades into swords
and your pruning-knives into spears.
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
¹¹ Hurry, come, you surrounding nations,
gather yourselves together!”

Bring your warriors down, Adonai!

¹² “Let the nations be roused and come up
to the Valley of Y’hoshafat [Adonai judges].
For there I will sit to judge
all the surrounding nations.”

¹³ Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe;
come, and tread, for the winepress is full.
The vats are overflowing,
for their wickedness is great.
¹⁴ Such enormous crowds
in the Valley of Decision!
For the Day of Adonai is upon us
in the Valley of Decision!
¹⁵ The sun and moon have grown black,
and the stars have stopped shining.
¹⁶ Adonai will roar from Tziyon,
he will thunder from Yerushalayim,
the sky and the earth will shake.

But Adonai will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Isra’el.
¹⁷ “You will know that I am Adonai your God,
living on Tziyon my holy mountain.”

Then Yerushalayim will be holy,
and foreigners will pass through her no more.
¹⁸ Then, when that time comes,
the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
the hills will flow with milk,
all the streambeds of Y’hudah will run with water,
and a spring will flow from the house of Adonai
to water the Sheetim Valley.

¹⁹ But Egypt will be desolate
and Edom a desert waste,
because of the violence done to the people of Y’hudah,
because they shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ Y’hudah will be inhabited forever,
Yerushalayim through all generations.
²¹ “I will cleanse them of bloodguilt
which I have not yet cleansed,”
for Adonai is living in Tziyon.

“For Dammesek’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they threshed Gil‘ad
with an iron-spiked threshing-sledge;
⁴ I will send fire to the house of Haza’el,
and it will consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
⁵ I will break the bars of Dammesek’s gates.
I will cut off the inhabitants from Bik‘at-Aven,
and him who holds the scepter from Beit-‘Eden.
Then the people of Aram will go into exile
in Kir,” says Adonai.

⁶ Here is what Adonai says:

“For ‘Azah’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they exiled a whole population
and handed them over to Edom;
⁷ I will send fire to the wall of ‘Azah,
and it will consume its palaces.
⁸ I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,
and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against ‘Ekron,
and the rest of the P’lishtim will perish,”
says Adonai, God.

⁹ Here is what Adonai says:

“For Tzor’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they exiled a whole population to Edom
and did not remember the covenant with kinsmen;
¹⁰ I will send fire to the wall of Tzor,
and it will consume its palaces.”

¹¹ Here is what Adonai says:

“For Edom’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because with sword he pursued his kinsman
and threw aside all pity,
constantly nursing his anger,
forever fomenting his fury;
¹² I will send fire on Teman,
and it will consume the palaces of Botzrah.”

¹³ Here is what Adonai says:

“For the people of ‘Amon’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they ripped apart pregnant women
just to expand their territory,
¹⁴ I will set fire to the wall of Rabbah,
and it will consume its palaces
amid shouts on the day of battle,
amid a storm on the day of the whirlwind.
¹⁵ Their king will go into exile,
he and his princes together,” says Adonai.

2 Here is what Adonai says:

“For Mo’av’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because he burned the bones of the king of Edom,
turning them into lime;
² I will send fire on Mo’av,
and it will consume the palaces of K’riot.
Mo’av will die with turmoil and shouting,
along with the sound of the shofar.
³ I will cut off the judge from among them
and kill all his princes with him,” says Adonai.

⁴ Here is what Adonai says:

“For Y’hudah’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they rejected Adonai’s Torah
and haven’t observed his laws,
and their lies caused them to fall into error
and live the way their ancestors did;
⁵ I will send fire on Y’hudah,
and it will consume the palaces of Yerushalayim.

⁶ Here is what Adonai says:

“For Isra’el’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it —
because they sell the upright for silver
and the poor for a pair of shoes,
⁷ grinding the heads of the poor in the dust
and pushing the lowly out of the way;
father and son sleep with the same girl,
profaning my holy name;
⁸ lying down beside any altar
on clothes taken in pledge;
drinking wine in the house of their God
bought with fines they imposed.

⁹ “I destroyed the Emori before them;
though tall as cedars and strong as oaks,
I destroyed their fruit above
and their root below.
¹⁰ More than that, I brought you up from Egypt,
led you forty years in the desert,
so that you could have the Emori’s land.
¹¹ I raised up some of your sons to be prophets,
other young men of yours to be n’zirim.
People of Isra’el!
Isn’t that true?” asks Adonai.
¹² But you gave the n’zirim wine to drink
and ordered the prophets, ‘Don’t prophesy!’
¹³ “Enough! I will make all this crush you,
just as a cart overloaded with grain
crushes what’s under it.
¹⁴ Even the swift won’t be able to flee;
the strong won’t be able to use their strength,
the warriors won’t save themselves.
¹⁵ Archers won’t be able to stand,
the fastest runners won’t save themselves,
those on horses won’t save themselves.
¹⁶ On that day even the bravest warriors
will throw off their weapons and flee,” says Adonai.

² “Of all the families on earth,
only you have I intimately known.
This is why I will punish you
for all your crimes.”
³ Do two people travel together
without having so agreed?
⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl in his lair
if it has caught nothing?
⁵ Does a bird get caught in a trap on the ground
if it hasn’t been baited?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
when it has taken nothing?
⁶ When the shofar is blown in the city,
don’t the people tremble?
Can disaster befall a city
without Adonai’s having done it?
⁷ Adonai, God, does nothing without
revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
⁸ The lion has roared. Who will not fear?
Adonai, God, has spoken. Who will not prophesy?

⁹ “Proclaim it on the palaces in Ashdod
and on the palaces in the land of Egypt; say:
‘Assemble yourselves on the hills of Shomron!
See what great tumult is seething within it,
how much oppression is being done there.’
¹⁰ For they don’t know how to do right,” says Adonai.
“They store up violence and robbery in their palaces.”

¹¹ Therefore, here is what Adonai Elohim says:

“An enemy will surround the land.
He will strip you of your strength,
and plunder your palaces.”

¹² This is what Adonai says:

¹³ “As a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion
a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear;
so the people of Isra’el in Shomron will be rescued,
huddled under cushions in the corners of their beds.

“Hear, and testify against the house of Ya‘akov,”
says Adonai Elohim Elohei-Tzva’ot.
¹⁴ “For when I punish Isra’el’s crimes,
I will also punish the altars of Beit-El.
The horns of the altar will be cut off,
and they will fall to the ground.

¹⁵ I will tear down winter houses
as well as summer houses;
houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed;
the mansions will be no more,” says Adonai.
4 “Listen, you [lovely] cows of Bashan,
who live on Mount Shomron,
who oppress the poor and grind down the needy,
who say to their husbands, ‘Bring something to drink’:
² Adonai Elohim has sworn by his holiness
that your time is surely coming.

“You will be dragged away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.
³ You will leave through breaks in the wall,
each woman right behind the next,
and be sent off to Harmonah,” says Adonai.

⁴ “Come to Beit-El, and commit crimes;
to Gilgal, and commit more crimes!
Bring your sacrifices in the morning
and your tithes after three days;
⁵ burn leavened bread as a thank offering;
brag in public about your voluntary offerings;
because that’s what you love to do, Isra’el!”
says Adonai Elohim.

⁶ “I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities,
left you nothing to eat in all your villages;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.

⁷ “I withheld the rain from you
three months before the harvest.
I made it rain on one city
and not on another —
one field had rain,
while another with no rain dried up;
⁸ from two or three cities they would stagger to one city
for water to drink, but there wasn’t enough;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.

⁹ “I struck your crops with hot winds and blight,
your many gardens and vineyards;
the cutter-worms devoured
your fig and olive trees;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.

¹⁰ “I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt,
put your young men to death with the sword;
let your horses be captured;
and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
¹¹ “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew S’dom and ‘Amora;
you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.

¹² “This is why I will deal with you in this way, Isra’el;
and because I will deal with you in this way,
prepare to meet your God, Isra’el —
¹³ him who forms mountains and creates wind,
who declares to humankind his thoughts,
who turns the morning to darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth —
Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot is his name.”

5 Hear this word that I take up against you
in lament, house of Isra’el:

² The virgin of Isra’el has fallen;
she will not rise again.
She lies abandoned on her own soil
with no one to lift her up.

³ For thus says Adonai Elohim:
“The city from which a thousand marched
will be left with a hundred,
and the one from which a hundred marched
will be left with ten
from the house of Isra’el.”

⁴ For here is what Adonai says
to the house of Isra’el:
“If you seek me, you will survive;
⁵ but don’t seek Beit-El, or enter Gilgal
or pass on into Be’er-Sheva;
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Beit-El will come to nothing.”

⁶ If you seek Adonai, you will survive.
Otherwise, he will break out against
the house of Yosef like fire,
devouring Beit-El,
with no one to quench the flames.

⁷ You who turn justice to bitter wormwood
and throw righteousness to the ground!
⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who brings deathlike shadows over the morning,
who darkens the day into night,
who calls for the water in the sea
and with it floods the earth —
Adonai is his name —
⁹ he flashes destruction on the strong,
so that destruction overcomes the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate anyone promoting justice
at the city gate,
they detest anyone who speaks the truth.
¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and extort from them levies of grain;
although you have built houses of cut stone,
you will not live in them;
and though you have planted pleasant vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how numerous are your crimes
and how outrageous your sins —
bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms
pushing the poor aside at the gate.
¹³ At times like these a prudent person stays silent,
for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive.
Then Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot will be with you,
as you say he is.
¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate.
Maybe Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.

¹⁶ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, Adonai:

“In all public squares there will be lamentation,
in all the streets they will cry, ‘Oh, no!’
They will summon farmers to mourn
and professional mourners to wail.
¹⁷ There will be wailing in every vineyard,
for I will pass through among you,” says Adonai.

¹⁸ Woe to you who want the Day of Adonai!
Why do you want it, this Day of Adonai?
It is darkness, not light;
¹⁹ as if someone were to run from a lion,
just to be met by a bear;
as if he entered a house, put his hand on the wall,
just to be bitten by a snake.
²⁰ Won’t the Day of Adonai be darkness, not light,
completely dark, with no brightness at all?
²¹ “I hate, I utterly loathe your festivals;
I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.
²² If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
nor will I consider the peace offerings
of your stall-fed cattle.
²³ Spare me the noise of your songs!
I don’t want to hear the strumming of your lutes!
²⁴ Instead, let justice well up like water,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
²⁵ Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
in the desert forty years, house of Isra’el?
²⁶ No, but now you will bear Sikkut as your king
and Kiyun, your images,
the star of your god, which you made for yourselves;
²⁷ as I exile you beyond Dammesek,”
says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot —
that is his name.

6 Woe to those living at ease in Tziyon
and to those who feel complacent on the hills of Shomron,
renowned men in this foremost of nations,
to whom the rest of Isra’el come.
² Travel to Kalneh and see;
from there go on to Hamat the great;
then go down to Gat of the P’lishtim.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
³ You put off all thought of the evil day
but hasten the reign of violence.
⁴ You lie on beds of ivory
and lounge sprawled out on your couches,
dining on meat from lambs in the flock
and from calves fattened in stalls.
⁵ You make up wild songs at your parties,
playing the lute and inventing other instruments —
[imagining that you’re] like David!
⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful
and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,
but feel no grief at the ruin of Yosef.
⁷ Therefore now they will be the first
to go into exile with those being exiled,
and the revelry of those who lounged,
sprawling, will pass away.
⁸ “Adonai Elohim swears by himself,”
says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot,
“I detest that Ya‘akov is so proud,
and I hate his palaces.
I will hand over the city,
along with everything in it.”

¹¹ For when Adonai gives the order,
great houses will be shattered
and small houses reduced to rubble.
¹² Do horses run on rock?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitter wormwood.
¹³ You take pleasure in worthless things.
You think your power comes from your own strength.

“Adonai Elohim, forgive — please!
How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

“Adonai Elohim, stop — please!
How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

“I am going to put a plumbline in
among my people Isra’el;
I will never again overlook their offenses.
⁹ The high places of Yitz’chak will be desolate,
Isra’el’s sanctuaries will be destroyed,
and I will attack the house
of Yarov‘am with the sword.”

‘Your wife will become a whore in the city,
your sons and daughters will die by the sword,
your land will be parcelled out with a measuring line,
you yourself will die in an unclean land,
and Isra’el will certainly be exiled from their land.’”

“The end ^[b] has come for my people,
I will never again overlook their offenses.
³ When that time comes, the songs in the temple
will be wailings,” says Adonai Elohim.
“There will be many dead bodies;
everywhere silence will reign.”

⁴ Listen, you who swallow the needy
and destroy the poor of the land!
⁵ You say, “When will Rosh-Hodesh be over,
so we can market our grain?
and Shabbat, so we can sell wheat?”
You measure the grain in a small eifah,
but the silver in heavy shekels,
fixing the scales, so that you can cheat,
⁶ buying the needy for money
and the poor for a pair of shoes,
and sweeping up the refuse of the wheat to sell!”
⁷ Adonai swears by Ya‘akov’s pride,
“I will forget none of their deeds, ever.
⁸ Won’t the land tremble for this,
and everyone mourn, who lives in the land?
It will all rise, just like the Nile,
be in turmoil and subside, like the Nile in Egypt.

⁹ “When that time comes,” says Adonai Elohim,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰ I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into wailing;
I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists
and shave your heads bald in grief.
I will make it like mourning for an only son
and its end like a bitter day.

¹¹ “The time is coming,” says Adonai Elohim,
“when I will send famine over the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of Adonai.
¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
and from north to east, running back and forth,
seeking the word of Adonai;
but they will not find it.
¹³ When that time comes, young women and men
will faint from thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by the sin of Shomron,
who say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’
and, ‘As the way of Be’er-Sheva lives’ —
they will fall and never get up again.”

“Strike the tops of the columns until the thresholds shake!
Smash them to pieces on the heads of all the people!
Those who remain I will kill with the sword;
not one of them will succeed in fleeing,
not one of them will escape.
² If they dig down to Sh’ol,
my hand will haul them out;
if they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down.
³ If they hide themselves on the top of the Karmel,
I will search them out and capture them there;
If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
I will order the serpent to bite them there.
⁴ If their enemies herd them into exile,
I will order the sword to kill them there.
I will fix my gaze on them
for harm and not for good.”

⁵ For Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot
is the one who can melt the earth with his touch,
and make all who live on it mourn.
It will all rise, just like the Nile,
and then subside, like the Nile in Egypt.
⁶ He builds his upper rooms in heaven
and establishes his sky-vault over the earth.
He summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the earth.
Adonai is his name.

⁷ “People of Isra’el, are you any different
from the Ethiopians to me?” asks Adonai.
“True, I brought Isra’el up from Egypt,
but I also brought the P’lishtim from Kaftor,
and Aram from Kir.
⁸ Look, the eyes of Adonai Elohim
are on the sinful kingdom.
I will wipe it off the face of the earth,
yet I will not completely destroy
the house of Ya‘akov,” says Adonai.

⁹ “For when I give the order,
I will shake the house of Isra’el,
there among all the Goyim,
as one shakes with a sieve,
letting no grain fall to the ground.
¹⁰ All the sinners among my people
who say, ‘Disaster will never overtake us
or confront us,’ will die by the sword.

¹¹ “When that day comes, I will raise up
the fallen sukkah of David.
I will close up its gaps, raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as it used to be,
¹² so that Isra’el can possess
what is left of Edom
and of all the nations bearing my name,”
says Adonai, who is doing this.
¹³ “The days will come,” says Adonai,
“when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one treading grapes the one sowing seed.
Sweet wine will drip down the mountains,
and all the hills will flow with it.
¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of my people Isra’el;
they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities;
they will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant them on their own soil,
no more to be uprooted
from their land, which I gave them,”
says Adonai your God.

² “I am making you the least of all nations,
you will be beneath contempt.
³ Your proud heart has deceived you,
you whose homes are caves in the cliffs,
who live on the heights and say to yourselves,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ If you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,
even if you place it among the stars,
I will bring you down from there.” says Adonai.

⁵ If thieves were to come to you,
or if robbers by night
(Oh, how destroyed you are!),
wouldn’t they stop when they’d stolen enough?
If grape-pickers came to you,
Wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning?
⁶ But see how ‘Esav has been looted,
their secret treasures searched out!
⁷ Your allies went with you only to the border,
those at peace with you deceived and defeated you,
those who ate your food set a trap for you,
and you couldn’t discern it.
⁸ “When that Day comes,” says Adonai,
“won’t I destroy all the wise men of Edom
and leave no discernment on Mount ‘Esav?
⁹ Your warriors, Teman, will be so distraught
that everyone on Mount ‘Esav will be slaughtered.
¹⁰ For the violence done to your kinsman Ya‘akov,
shame will cover you;
and you will be forever cut off.
¹¹ On that day you stood aside,
while strangers carried off his treasure,
and foreigners entered his gates
to cast lots for Yerushalayim —
you were no different from them.
¹² You shouldn’t have gloated over your kinsman
on their day of disaster
or rejoiced over the people of Y’hudah
on their day of destruction.
You shouldn’t have spoken arrogantly
on a day of trouble
¹³ or entered the gate of my people
on their day of calamity —
no, you shouldn’t have gloated over their suffering
on their day of calamity
or laid hands on their treasure
on their day of calamity.
¹⁴ You shouldn’t have stood at the crossroads
to cut down their fugitives
or handed over their survivors
on a day of trouble.”

¹⁵ For the Day of Adonai is near for all nations;
as you did, it will be done to you;
your dealings will come back on your own head.
¹⁶ For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so will all the nations drink in turn;
yes, they will drink and gulp it down
and be as if they had never existed.

¹⁷ But on Mount Tziyon there will be
a holy remnant who will escape,
and the house of Ya‘akov will repossess
their rightful inheritance.
¹⁸ The house of Ya‘akov will be a fire
and the house of Yosef a flame,
setting aflame and consuming
the stubble which is the house of ‘Esav.
None of the house of ‘Esav will remain,
for Adonai has spoken.
¹⁹ Those in the Negev will repossess
the mountain of ‘Esav,
and those in the Sh’felah
the land of the P’lishtim;
they will repossess the field of Efrayim
and the field of Shomron,
and Binyamin will occupy Gil‘ad.
²⁰ Those from this army of the people of Isra’el
exiled among the Kena‘anim as far away as Tzarfat,
and the exiles from Yerushalayim in S’farad,
will repossess the cities in the Negev.
²¹ Then the victorious will ascend Mount Tziyon
to rule over Mount ‘Esav,
but the kingship will belong to Adonai.

“Out of my distress I called to Adonai,
and he answered me;
from the belly of Sh’ol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
^4 (3) For you threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas;
and the flood enveloped me;
all your surging waves passed over me.
^5 (4) I thought, ‘I have been banished from your sight.’
But I will again look at your holy temple.
^6 (5) The water surrounded me, threatened my life;
the deep closed over me, seaweed twined around my head.
^7 (6) I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains,
to a land whose bars would close me in forever;
but you brought me up alive from the pit,
Adonai, my God!
^8 (7) As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered Adonai;
and my prayer came in to you,
into your holy temple.

^9 (8) “Those who worship vain idols
give up their source of mercy;
^10 (9) but I, speaking my thanks aloud,
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed, I will pay.
Salvation comes from Adonai!”

⁶ “So I will make Shomron a heap in the countryside,
a place for planting vineyards;
I will pour her stones down into the valley,
laying bare her foundations.
⁷ All her carved images will be smashed to pieces,
all she earned consumed by fire;
and I will reduce her idols to rubble.
She amassed them from a whore’s wages,
and as a whore’s wages they will be spent again.”

⁸ This is why I howl and wail,
why I go barefoot and stripped,
why I howl like the jackals
and mourn like the ostriches.
⁹ For her wound cannot be healed,
and now it is coming to Y’hudah as well;
it reaches even to the gate of my people,
to Yerushalayim itself.
¹⁰ Don’t tell about it in Gat,
don’t shed any tears.
At Beit-L‘afrah [house of dust]
roll yourself in the dust.
¹¹ Inhabitants of Shafir, pass on your way
in nakedness and shame.
The inhabitants of Tza’anan
have not left yet.
The wailing of Beit-Ha’etzel
will remove from you their support.
¹² The inhabitants of Marot
have no hope of anything good;
for Adonai has sent down disaster
to the very gate of Yerushalayim.
¹³ Harness the chariots to the fastest horses,
inhabitants of Lakhish;
she was the beginning of sin
for the daughter of Tziyon;
for the crimes of Isra’el
are traceable to you.
¹⁴ Therefore you must bestow parting gifts
upon Moreshet-Gat.
The houses of Akhziv will disappoint
the kings of Isra’el.
¹⁵ Inhabitants of Mareshah,
I have yet to bring you
the one who will [invade and] possess you.
The glory of Isra’el will come to ‘Adulam.

¹⁶ Shave the hair from your head as you mourn
for the children who were your delight;
make yourselves as bald as vultures,
for they have gone from you into exile.

2 Woe to those who think up evil
and plan wickedness as they lie in bed.
When morning comes, they do it,
since they have it in their power.
² They covet fields and seize them;
they take over houses as well,
doing violence to both owner and house,
to people and their inherited land.

³ Therefore this is what Adonai says:

“Against this family I am planning an evil
from which you will not withdraw your necks;
nor will you walk with your heads held high,
for it will be an evil time.”
⁴ On that day they will take up a dirge for you;
sadly lamenting, they will wail,
“We are completely ruined!
Our people’s land has changed hands.
Our fields are taken away from us;
instead of restoring them, he parcels them out.”
⁵ Therefore, you will have no one
in the assembly of Adonai
to stretch out a measuring line and restore
the land assigned by lot.
⁶ “Don’t preach!” — thus they preach!
“They shouldn’t preach about these things.
Shame will not overtake us” —
⁷ is this what the house of Ya‘akov says?

Adonai has not grown impatient,
and these things are not his doings.
“Rather, my words do only good
to anyone living uprightly.
⁸ But lately my people behave like an enemy,
stripping both cloaks and tunics
from travelers who thought they were secure,
so that they become like war refugees.
⁹ You throw my people’s women
out of the homes they love.
You deprive their children
of my glory forever.
¹⁰ Get up and go! You can’t stay here!
Because [the land] is now unclean,
it will destroy you
with a grievous destruction.”

¹¹ If a man who walks in wind and falsehood
tells this lie: “I will preach to you
of [how good it is to drink] wine and strong liquor” —
this people will accept him as their preacher!

¹² “I will assemble all of you, Ya‘akov;
I will gather the remnant of Isra’el,
I will put them together like sheep in a pen,
like a herd in its pasture —
it will hum with the sounds of people.”

¹³ The one breaking through went up before them;
they broke through, passed the gate and went out.
Their king passed on before them;
Adonai was leading them.

3 “I said, ‘Please listen, leaders of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra’el:
Shouldn’t you know what justice is?
² Yet you hate what is good and love what is bad.
You strip off their skin from them
and their flesh from their bones,
³ you eat the flesh of my people,
skin them alive, break their bones;
yes, they chop them in pieces,
like flesh in a caldron, like meat in a pot.’”
⁴ Then they will call to Adonai,
but he will not answer them;
when that time comes, he will hide his face from them,
because their deeds were so wicked.

⁶ “Therefore you will have night, not vision,
darkness and not divination;
the sun will go down on the prophets,
over them the day will be black.”

⁷ The seers will be put to shame,
the diviners will be disgraced.
They will have to cover their mouths,
because there will be no answer from God.
⁸ On the other hand, I am full of power
by the Spirit of Adonai,
full of justice and full of might,
to declare to Ya‘akov his crime,
to Isra’el his sin.
⁹ Hear this, please, leaders of the house of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra’el,
you who abhor what is just
and pervert anything that is right,
¹⁰ who build up Tziyon with blood
and Yerushalayim with wickedness.
¹¹ Her leaders sell verdicts for bribes,
her cohanim teach for a price,
her prophets divine for money —
yet they claim to rely on Adonai!
“Isn’t Adonai here with us?” they say.
“No evil can come upon us.”
¹² Therefore, because of you,
Tziyon will be plowed under like a field,
Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins,
and the mountain of the house like a forested height.

4 But in the acharit-hayamim it will come about
that the mountain of Adonai’s house
will be established as the most important mountain.
It will be regarded more highly than the other hills,
and peoples will stream there.
² Many Gentiles will go and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai,
to the house of the God of Ya‘akov!
He will teach us about his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah,
the word of Adonai from Yerushalayim.
³ He will judge between many peoples
and arbitrate for many nations far away.
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.
⁴ Instead, each person will sit under his vine
and fig tree, with no one to upset him,
for the mouth of Adonai-Tzva’ot
has spoken.
⁵ For all the peoples will walk,
each in the name of its god;
but we will walk in the name of Adonai
our God forever and ever.

⁶ “When that day comes,” says Adonai,
“I will assemble the lame
and gather those who were dispersed,
along with those I afflicted.
⁷ I will make the lame a remnant
and those who were driven off a strong nation.”

Adonai will rule them on Mount Tziyon
from that time forth and forever.
⁸ You, tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Tziyon,
to you your former sovereignty will return,
the royal power of the daughter of Yerushalayim.
⁹ Why are you now crying out?
Don’t you have a king?
Has your counselor been destroyed,
that you are seized with pain like a woman in labor?
¹⁰ Be in pain! Work to give birth
like a woman in labor, daughter of Tziyon!
For now you will go out of the city
and live in the wilds till you reach Bavel.
There you will be rescued;
there Adonai will redeem you
from the power of your enemies.
¹¹ Now many nations have gathered against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,
let’s gloat over Tziyon.”
¹² But they don’t know the thoughts of Adonai,
they don’t understand his plan;
for he has gathered them like sheaves
on the threshing-floor.
¹³ Get up! Start threshing, daughter of Tziyon!
“For I will make your horns like iron
and your hoofs like bronze.”
You will crush many peoples
and devote their plunder to Adonai,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

^14 (5:1) Now gather yourself in troops,
you who are accustomed to being in troops;
they have laid siege to us.
They are striking the judge of Isra’el
on the cheek with a stick.

5 ⁽²⁾ But you, Beit-Lechem near Efrat,
so small among the clans of Y’hudah,
out of you will come forth to me
the future ruler of Isra’el,
whose origins are far in the past,
back in ancient times.
^2 (3) Therefore he will give up [Isra’el]
only until she who is in labor gives birth.
Then the rest of his kinsmen
will return to the people of Isra’el.
^3 (4) He will stand and feed his flock
in the strength of Adonai,
in the majesty of the name
of Adonai his God;
and they will stay put, as he grows great
to the very ends of the earth;
^4 (5) and this will be peace.
If Ashur invades our land,
if he overruns our fortresses,
we will raise seven shepherds against him,
eight leaders of men.
^5 (6) They will shepherd the land of Ashur with the sword,
the land of Nimrod at its gates;
and he will rescue us from Ashur
when he invades our land,
when he overruns our borders.
^6 (7) Then the remnant of Ya‘akov,
surrounded by many peoples,
will be like dew from Adonai,
like showers on the grass,
which doesn’t wait for a man
or expect anything from mortals.
^7 (8) The remnant of Ya‘akov among the nations,
surrounded by many peoples,
will be like a lion among forest animals,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep —
if it passes through, tramples and tears to pieces,
there is no one to rescue them.
^8 (9) Your hand will be raised over your enemies;
all your adversaries will be destroyed.

^9 (10) “When that day comes,” says Adonai,
“I will cut off your horses from among you
and destroy your chariots.
^10 (11) I will cut off the cities of your land
and lay waste your strongholds.
^11 (12) I will cut off sorceries from your land;
you will no longer have soothsayers.
^12 (13) I will cut off your carved images
and standing-stones from among you;
no longer will you worship
what your own hands have made.
^13 (14) I will pull up your sacred poles from among you
and destroy your enemies.
^14 (15) I will wreak vengeance in anger and fury
on the nations, because they would not listen.”

6 So listen now to what Adonai says:
“Stand up and state your case to the mountains,
let the hills hear what you have to say.”
² Listen, mountains, to Adonai’s case;
also you enduring rocks that support the earth!
Adonai has a case against his people;
he wants to argue it out with Isra’el:
³ “My people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ I brought you up from the land of Egypt.
I redeemed you from a life of slavery.
I sent Moshe, Aharon
and Miryam to lead you.
⁵ My people, just remember what Balak
the king of Mo’av had planned,
what Bil‘am the son of B‘or answered him,
[and what happened] between Sheetim and Gilgal —
so that you will understand
the saving deeds of Adonai.”
⁶ “With what can I come before Adonai
to bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt offerings?
with calves in their first year?
⁷ Would Adonai take delight in thousands of rams
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

⁸ Human being, you have already been told
what is good, what Adonai demands of you —
no more than to act justly, love grace
and walk in purity with your God.

⁹ The voice of Adonai! He calls to the city —
and it is wisdom to fear your name —
“Listen to the rod and to him who commissioned it.
¹⁰ Are there still ill-gotten gains in the house of the wicked?
still the detestable short eifah-measure?
¹¹ Should I declare innocent wicked scales
and a bag of fraudulent weights?
¹² The rich men there are full of violence,
the inhabitants tell lies,
with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

¹³ “Therefore, I am starting to strike you down,
to destroy you because of your sins.
¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied,
with hunger gnawing inside you.
You will conceive but not give birth;
if you do give birth, I will give him to the sword.
¹⁵ You will sow but will not reap,
you will press olives but not rub yourself with oil,
likewise you will press grapes but not drink the wine.
¹⁶ For you keep the regulations of ‘Omri
and all the practices of the house of Ach’av,
modeling yourselves on their advice.
Therefore I will make you an object of horror,
the inhabitants of this city a cause for contempt;
you will suffer the insults aimed at my people.”

7 Woe to me! for I have become
like the leavings of summer fruit,
like the gleanings when the vintage is finished —
there isn’t a cluster worth eating,
no early-ripened fig that appeals to me.
² The godly have been destroyed from the land,
there is no one upright among humankind.
They all lie in wait for blood,
each hunts his brother with a net.
³ Their hands do evil well.
The prince makes his request,
the judge grants it for a price,
and the great man expresses his evil desires —
thus they weave it together.
⁴ The best of them is a briar,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The time of your watchmen — of your punishment — has come;
now they will be confused.
⁵ Don’t trust in your neighbor;
don’t put confidence in a close friend;
shut the gates of your mouth even from [your wife],
lying there with you in bed.
⁶ For a son insults his father,
a daughter rises against her mother,
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law —
a person’s enemies are the members of his own household.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to Adonai,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
⁸ Enemies of mine, don’t gloat over me!
Although I have fallen, I will rise;
though I live in the dark, Adonai is my light.
⁹ I will endure Adonai’s rage,
because I sinned against him;
until he pleads my cause
and judges in my favor.
Then he will bring me out to the light,
and I will see his justice.
¹⁰ My enemies will see it too,
and shame will cover those
who said to me, “Where is Adonai your God?”
I will gloat over them,
as they are trampled underfoot
like mud in the streets.

¹¹ That will be the day for rebuilding your walls,
a day for expanding your territory,
¹² a day when [your] people will come [back] to you
from Ashur and from the cities of Egypt,
from Egypt and from as far as the Euphrates River,
and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ The earth will be desolate for those living in it,
as a result of their deeds.
¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that belongs to you,
who live alone, like a forest
in the middle of a fertile pasture.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gil‘ad,
as they did in days of old.
¹⁵ “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
I will show them wonders.”
¹⁶ The nations will see and be put to shame,
in spite of all their power.
They will cover their mouths with their hands,
and their ears will be deafened.
¹⁷ They will lick the dust like snakes;
they will emerge from their fortresses trembling
like reptiles that crawl about on the earth;
they will come with fear to Adonai our God,
afraid because of you.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you,
pardoning the sin and overlooking the crimes
of the remnant of his heritage?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in grace.
¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us,
he will subdue our iniquities.
You will throw all their sins
into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show truth to Ya‘akov
and grace to Avraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors
since days of long ago.

² Adonai is a jealous and vengeful God.
Adonai avenges; he knows how to be angry.
Adonai takes vengeance on his foes
and stores up wrath for his enemies.
³ Adonai is slow to anger, but great in power;
and he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Adonai’s path is in the whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
⁴ He rebukes the sea and leaves it dry,
he dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and the Karmel languish;
the flower of the L’vanon withers.
⁵ The mountains quake before him,
and the hills dissolve;
the earth collapses in his presence,
the world and everyone living in it.
⁶ Who can withstand his fury?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
the rocks broken to pieces before him.

⁷ Adonai is good,
a stronghold in time of trouble;
he takes care of those
who take refuge in him.
⁸ But with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of [Ninveh’s] place,
and darkness will pursue his enemies.

⁹ What are you planning against Adonai?
He is making an end [of it];
trouble will not arise a second time.
¹⁰ For like men drunk with liquor,
they will be burned up like tangled thorns,
like straw completely dry.
¹¹ Out of you, [Ninveh,] he came,
one who plots evil against Adonai,
who counsels wickedness.

¹² Here is what Adonai says:
“Though they be many and strong,
they will be cut down, they will pass;
and though I have made you suffer,
I will make you suffer no more.
¹³ Now I will break his yoke from your necks
and snap the chains that bind you.

¹⁴ Adonai gave this order concerning you:
you will have no descendants to bear your name;
from the house of your god I will cut off
carved image and cast metal image;
I will prepare your grave,
because you are worthless.”

2 ^(1:15) Look! On the mountains are the feet
of him who brings good news, proclaiming shalom.
Keep your festivals, Y’hudah, fulfill your vows;
for B’liya‘al will never pass through you again;
he has been completely destroyed.
^2 (1) A destroyer has risen in front of your face;
guard the ramparts, keep watch on the road,
brace yourselves, marshall all your strength.
^3 (2) For Adonai is restoring the pride of Ya‘akov,
along with the pride of Isra’el;
because plunderers have plundered them
and ravaged their vines.

^4 (3) The shields of [Ninveh’s] warriors are [dyed] red;
the soldiers are wearing scarlet.
The steel of the chariots flashes like fire
as they prepare for battle.
The cypress [spears] are poisoned.
^5 (4) The chariots rush madly about in the streets,
jostling each other in the open places;
their appearance is like torches,
they run here and there like lightning.

^6 (5) [The king of Ninveh] assigns his officers;
they stumble as they march;
they hurry to its wall and set up shields
to protect the battering ram.
^7 (6) The gates of the rivers are opened,
and the palace melts away.
^8 (7) Its mistress is stripped and carried away;
her handmaids moan, they sound like doves,
as they beat their breasts.

^9 (8) Ninveh is like a pool whose water ebbs away.
“Stop! Stop!” But none of it goes back.
^10 (9) Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
There is no end to the treasure,
weighed down with precious things.
^11 (10) She is void, vacant; she is made bare.
Hearts are melting, knees are knocking;
every stomach is churning,
every face is drained of color.
^12 (11) What has become of the lion’s den,
the cave where the young lions fed,
where lion and lioness walked with their cubs,
and no one made them afraid?
^13 (12) The lion would tear up food for his cubs
and strangle prey for his lionesses;
he used to fill his caves with prey,
his lairs with torn flesh.

^14 (13) “I am against you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“Her chariots I will send up in smoke,
the sword will consume your lion cubs,
I will destroy your prey from the earth,
and your envoys’ voices will be heard no more.”

3 Woe to the city of blood, steeped in lies,
full of prey, with no end to the plunder!
² The crack of the whip! The rattle of wheels!
Galloping horses, jolting chariots,
³ cavalry charging, swords flashing,
spears glittering —
and hosts of slain, heaps of bodies;
there is no end to the corpses;
they stumble over their corpses.

⁴ “Because of the continual whoring of this whore,
this alluring mistress of sorcery,
who sells nations with her whoring
and families with her sorcery;
⁵ I am against you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“I will uncover your skirts on your face;
I will show the nations your private parts
and the kingdoms your shame.
⁶ I will pelt you with disgusting filth,
disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.
⁷ Then all who see you will recoil from you;
they will say, ‘Ninveh is destroyed!’
Who will mourn for her?
Where can I find people to comfort you?”

⁸ Are you any better than No-Amon,
located among the streams of the Nile,
with water all around her,
the flood her wall of defense?
⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt gave her boundless strength,
Put and Luvim were there to help you.
¹⁰ Still she went captive into exile,
her infants torn to pieces at every streetcorner.
Lots were drawn for her nobles,
and all her great men were bound in chains.

¹¹ You too, [Ninveh,] will be drunk;
your senses completely overcome.
You too will seek a refuge
from the enemy.
¹² All your fortifications will be
like fig trees with early ripening figs;
the moment they are shaken, they fall
into the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Look at your troops! They behave like women!
Your country’s gates are wide open to your foes;
fire has consumed their bars.
¹⁴ Draw water for the siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Go down in the clay, tread the mortar,
Take hold of the mold for bricks!
¹⁵ There the fire will burn you up;
and the sword will cut you down;
it will devour you like grasshoppers.

Make yourselves as many as grasshoppers,
Make yourselves as many as locusts!
¹⁶ You had more merchants than stars in the sky.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your marshals like swarms of locusts,
which settle on the walls on a cold day,
but when the sun rises they fly away;
they vanish to no one knows where.

¹⁸ Your shepherds are slumbering, king of Ashur.
Your leaders are asleep.
Your people are scattered all over the mountains,
with no one to round them up.
¹⁹ Your wound cannot be healed.
Your injury is fatal.
Everyone hearing the news about you
claps his hands in joy over you.
For who has not been overwhelmed
by your relentless cruelty?

² Adonai, how long must I cry
without your hearing?
“Violence!” I cry to you,
but you don’t save.
³ Why do you make me see wrongdoing,
why do you permit oppression?
Pillage and cruelty confront me,
so that strife and discord prevail.
⁴ Therefore Torah is not followed;
justice never gets rendered,
because the wicked fence in the righteous.
This is why justice comes out perverted.

⁵ “Look around among the nations!
What you see will completely astound you!
For what is going to be done in your days
you will not believe, even when you are told.
⁶ I am raising up the Kasdim,
that bitter and impetuous nation,
who march far and wide over the earth
to seize homes that are not their own.
⁷ Fearsome and dreadful they are;
their rules and strength come from themselves.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at night.
Their cavalry gallop in from afar,
flying like vultures rushing to feed.
⁹ All of them come for violence,
their faces set eagerly forward,
scooping up captives like sand.
¹⁰ They scoff at kings;
princes they deride.
They laugh at any fortress;
they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹ Then they sweep on like the wind,
but they become guilty,
because they make their strength their god.”

¹² Adonai, haven’t you existed forever?
My God, my holy one, we will not die.
Adonai, you appointed them to execute judgment.
Rock, you commissioned them to correct us.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
you cannot countenance oppression.
So why do you countenance traitors?
Why are you silent when evil people
swallow up those more righteous than they?
¹⁴ You make people like fish in the sea,
like reptiles that have no ruler.
¹⁵ The evil haul them all up with their hooks,
catch them in their fish net,
or gather them in their dragnet.
Then they rejoice and make merry,
¹⁶ offering sacrifices to their fishnet
and burning incense to their dragnet;
because through them they live in luxury,
with plenty of food to eat.

¹⁷ Should they, therefore, keep emptying their nets?
Should they keep slaughtering the nations without pity?

2 I will stand at my watchpost;
I will station myself on the rampart.
I will look to see what [God] will say through me
and what I will answer when I am reproved.

² Then Adonai answered me; he said,

“Write down the vision clearly on tablets,
so that even a runner can read it.
³ For the vision is meant for its appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and it does not lie.
It may take a while, but wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.

⁴ “Look at the proud: he is inwardly not upright;
but the righteous will attain life through trusting faithfulness.
⁵ Truly, wine is treacherous;
the arrogant will not live at peace
but keeps expanding his desires like Sh’ol;
like death, he can never be satisfied;
he keeps collecting all the nations for himself,
rallying to himself all the peoples.
⁶ Won’t all these take up taunting him
and say about him, in mocking riddles,
‘Woe to him who amasses other people’s wealth! —
how long must it go on? —
and to him who adds to himself the weight
of goods taken in pledge!
⁷ Won’t your own creditors suddenly stand,
won’t those who make you tremble wake up?
You will become their spoil.
⁸ Because you plundered many nations,
all the rest of the peoples will plunder you;
because of the bloodshed and violence done
to the land, the city and all who live there.

⁹ “‘Woe to him who seeks unjust gain for his household,
putting his nest on the heights,
in order to be safe from the reach of harm.
¹⁰ By scheming to destroy many peoples,
you have brought shame to your house
and forfeited your life.
¹¹ For the very stones will cry out from the wall,
and a beam in the framework will answer them.

¹² “‘Woe to him who builds a city with blood
and founds a town on injustice,
¹³ so that people toil for what will be burned up,
and nations exhaust themselves to no purpose.
Isn’t all this from Adonai-Tzva’ot?
¹⁴ For the earth will be as full
of the knowledge of Adonai’s glory
as water covering the sea.

¹⁵ “‘Woe to him who has his neighbor drink,
adds his own poison and makes him drunk,
in order to see him naked.
¹⁶ You are filled with shame, not glory.
You, drink too, and stagger!
The cup of Adonai’s right hand
will be turned against you;
your shame will exceed your glory.
¹⁷ For the violence done to the L’vanon
will overwhelm you,
and the destruction of the wild animals
will terrify you;
because of the bloodshed and violence done
to the land, the city and all who live there.’”

¹⁸ What good is an idol, once its maker has shaped it,
a cast metal image and a teacher of lies,
that its maker puts his trust in it,
and goes on making non-gods, unable to talk?
¹⁹ Woe to him who tells a piece of wood, “Wake up!”
or a speechless stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can this thing teach? Why, it’s covered with gold and silver,
without the slightest breath in it!
²⁰ But Adonai is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

² Adonai, I have heard the report about you.
Adonai, I am awed by your deeds.
Bring your work to life in our own age,
make it known in our own time;
but in anger, remember compassion.
³ God comes from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Pa’ran. (Selah)
His splendor covers the sky,
and his praise fills the earth.
⁴ His brightness is like the sun,
rays come forth from his hand —
that is where his power is concealed.
⁵ Before him goes pestilence,
and close behind, the plague.
⁶ When he stands up, the earth shakes;
when he looks, the nations tremble,
the eternal mountains are smashed to pieces,
the ancient hills sink down;
the ancient paths are his.
⁷ I saw trouble in the tents of Kushan
and the tent hangings shaking in the land of Midyan.

⁸ Adonai, is it against the rivers,
against the rivers that your anger is inflamed?
Is your fury directed at the sea?
Is that why you ride on your horses,
and drive your chariots to victory?
⁹ You brandish your naked bow
and order it filled with arrows. (Selah)
You split the earth with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains see you and tremble;
a torrent of water streams by;
the deep thunders forth,
as it raises enormous waves.
¹¹ The sun and moon stand still in the sky
at the light of your arrows speeding by,
at the gleam of your glittering spear.
¹² In fury you stride across the land,
in anger you trample the nations.
¹³ You come out to save your people,
to save your anointed one;
you crush the head of the house of the wicked,
uncovering its foundation all the way to the neck.
¹⁴ With their own rods you pierce the head of their warriors,
who come like a whirlwind to scatter us,
who rejoice at the prospect
of devouring the poor in secret.
¹⁵ You tread down the sea with your horses,
churning up the mighty waters.

¹⁶ When I heard, my whole body trembled,
my lips shook at the sound;
weakness overcame my limbs,
my legs gave way beneath me.
But I wait calmly for the day of trouble,
when it comes upon our assailants.
¹⁷ For even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines,
even if the olive tree fails to produce,
and the fields yield no food at all,
even if the sheep vanish from the sheep pen,
and there are no cows in the stalls;
¹⁸ still, I will rejoice in Adonai,
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ Elohim Adonai is my strength!
He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer
and enables me to stride over my high places.

⁷ Keep silent before Adonai Elohim,
for the Day of Adonai is near.
Adonai has prepared a sacrifice;
he has set apart those he invited.

⁸ When the time comes for Adonai’s sacrifice —
“I will punish the leaders
and the sons of the king,
also those who dress in foreign clothes.
⁹ On the same day I will also punish
all who jump over the threshold
to fill the house of their master
with violence and deceit.
¹⁰ Also on that day,” says Adonai,
“a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
wailing from the city’s Second Quarter
and a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹ Wail, you who live down in the hollow,
because all the merchants are destroyed,
all who trade with silver are ruined.
¹² When that time comes, I will search
Yerushalayim with lamps
and punish those who are [smug and thick,
like wine] left too long on its dregs,
who say to themselves, ‘Adonai will do nothing —
neither good nor bad.’
¹³ For this, their wealth will be plundered;
and their houses will be destroyed.
Yes, they will build houses but not live in them;
they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.”
¹⁴ The great Day of Adonai is near,
near and coming very quickly;
Hear the sound of the Day of Adonai!
When it’s here, even a warrior will cry bitterly.
¹⁵ That Day is a Day of fury,
a Day of trouble and distress,
a Day of waste and desolation,
a Day of darkness and gloom,
a Day of clouds and thick fog,
¹⁶ a Day of the shofar and battle-cry
against the fortified cities
and against the high towers [on the city walls].

¹⁷ “I will bring such distress on people
that they will grope their way like the blind,
because they have sinned against Adonai.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their bowels like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them.
On the day of Adonai’s fury,
the whole land will be destroyed
in the fire of his jealousy.
For he will make an end, a horrible end,
of all those living in the land.”

2 Gather together, gather yourselves,
nation devoid of shame;
² before the decree takes effect,
and the day comes when one passes like chaff;
before Adonai’s fierce anger
comes on you,
before the day of Adonai’s anger
comes on you.
³ Seek Adonai, all you humble in the land,
you who exercise his justice;
seek righteousness, seek humility —
you might be hidden
on the day of Adonai’s anger.

⁴ For ‘Azah will be abandoned,
Ashkelon will be desolate,
they will evacuate Ashdod at noon,
and ‘Ekron will be uprooted.
⁵ Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
the nation of the K’reti!
The word of Adonai is against you,
Kena‘an, land of the P’lishtim:
“I will destroy you; no one will be left.”
⁶ The seacoast will be reduced to pastures,
meadows for shepherds, pens for sheep;
⁷ and the coast will belong to the remnant
of the house of Y’hudah.
They will pasture their flocks there
and in the evening lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon.
For Adonai their God will remember them
and restore their fortunes.

⁸ “I have heard the insults of Mo’av
and the taunts of the people of ‘Amon,
how they reviled my people
and boasted of expanding their territory.
⁹ Therefore, as I live,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the God of Isra’el,
“Mo’av will become like S’dom
and the people of ‘Amon like ‘Amora,
a land covered with nettles and salt pits,
desolate forever.
The remnant of my people will plunder them,
the survivors in my nation will inherit them.”
¹⁰ This is what they will earn for their pride,
for having reviled and boasted against
the people of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
¹¹ Adonai will be fearsome against them,
for he will make all the earth’s gods waste away.
Then all the coasts and islands of the nations
will worship him, each from its place.

¹² “You too, Ethiopians,
will be put to death by my sword.”

¹³ He will stretch out his hand against the north;
he will destroy Ashur;
he will make Ninveh desolate,
as dry as the desert.
¹⁴ Herds will lie down in it,
and all kinds of wild animals too —
jackdaws and owls will roost on her columns,
voices screeching in the windows,
desolation on the doorsteps,
for its cedarwork is stripped bare.
¹⁵ This is the city, once so joyful,
whose people felt themselves secure,
who used to say to herself,
“I am [the greatest]! I have no rival.”
What a ruin she has become —
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone passing by her
hisses and shakes his fist!

3 Woe to her who is filthy, defiled;
woe to the tyrant city!
² She wouldn’t listen to the voice,
wouldn’t receive correction;
she didn’t trust in Adonai,
didn’t draw close to her God.
³ Her leaders there with her are roaring lions,
her judges desert wolves,
who don’t leave even a bone for tomorrow.
⁴ Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men;
her cohanim profane the holy
and do violence to Torah.
⁵ Adonai, who is righteous, is there among them;
he never does anything wrong.
Every morning he renders his judgment,
every morning, without fail;
yet the wrongdoer knows no shame.

⁶ “I have cut off nations,
their battlements are ruined;
I have made their streets ruins,
no one walks in them.
Their cities are destroyed,
abandoned, unpeopled.
⁷ I said, ‘Surely now you will fear me,
you will receive correction’;
so that her place will not be cut off
by all the punishments I brought on her.
But no, they only grew all the more eager
to be corrupt in all that they do.
⁸ Therefore, wait for me,” says Adonai,
“for the day when I rise to witness against you,
when I decide to assemble nations,
to gather kingdoms together,
to pour on them my indignation,
all my furious anger;
for all the earth will be consumed
in the fire of my passion.
⁹ For then I will change the peoples,
so that they will have pure lips,
to call on the name of Adonai, all of them,
and serve him with one accord.
¹⁰ Even from beyond Ethiopia’s rivers
they will bring those who petition me,
the daughter of my dispersed as my offering.
¹¹ When that day comes, you will not be ashamed
of everything you have done,
committing wrongs against me;
for then I will remove from among you
those of you who take joy in arrogance;
you will no longer be full of pride
on my holy mountain.
¹² I will leave among you
a poor and afflicted people,
who will find their refuge
in the name of Adonai.”

¹³ The remnant of Isra’el will not do wrong,
nor will they speak lies,
nor will there be found in their mouths
a tongue given over to deceit;
for they will be able to graze and lie down,
with no one to disturb them.
¹⁴ Sing, daughter of Tziyon!
Shout, Isra’el!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
daughter of Yerushalayim!
¹⁵ Adonai has removed the judgments against you,
he has expelled your enemy;
the king of Isra’el, Adonai,
is right there with you.
You no longer need to fear
that anything bad will happen.
¹⁶ On that day, it will be said
to Yerushalayim,
“Do not fear, Tziyon!
don’t let your hands droop down.
¹⁷ Adonai your God is right there with you,
as a mighty savior.
He will rejoice over you and be glad,
he will be silent in his love,
he will shout over you with joy.”

¹⁸ “I will gather those of yours
who grieve over the appointed feasts
and bear the burden of reproach
[because they cannot keep them].
¹⁹ When that time comes, I will deal
with all those who oppress you.
I will save her who is lame,
gather her who was driven away,
and make them whose shame spread over the earth
the object of praise and renown.
²⁰ When that time comes, I will bring you in;
when that time comes, I will gather you
and make you the object of fame and praise
among all the peoples of the earth —
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,” says Adonai.

‘Think about your life!
⁶ You sow much but bring in little;
you eat but aren’t satisfied;
you drink but never have enough;
you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
and he who works for a living earns wages
that are put in a bag full of holes.’”