Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

"Your country lies desolate; your cities have been incinerated. Before your very eyes, foreigners are devouring your land they've brought devastation on it, while the land is overthrown by foreigners.

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

Your new moons and your set seasons hath My soul hated, They have been upon me for a burden, I have been weary of bearing.

And in your spreading forth your hands, I hide mine eyes from you, Also when ye increase prayer, I do not hear, Your hands of blood have been full.

Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

If ye are willing, and have hearkened, The good of the land ye consume,

And if ye refuse, and have rebelled, By the sword ye are consumed, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.

How hath a faithful city become a harlot? I have filled it with judgment, Righteousness lodgeth in it -- now murderers.

Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.

For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.

And the strong hath been for tow, And his work for a spark, And burned have both of them together, And there is none quenching!

And it hath come to pass, In the latter end of the days, Established is the mount of Jehovah's house, Above the top of the mounts, And it hath been lifted up above the heights, And flowed unto it have all the nations.

And gone have many peoples and said, 'Come, and we go up unto the mount of Jehovah, Unto the house of the God of Jacob, And He doth teach us of His ways, And we walk in His paths, For from Zion goeth forth a law, And a word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

And He hath judged between the nations, And hath given a decision to many peoples, And they have beat their swords to ploughshares, And their spears to pruning-hooks, Nation doth not lift up sword unto nation, Nor do they learn any more -- war.

For Thou hast left Thy people, the house of Jacob. For they have been filled from the east, And are sorcerers like the Philistines, And with the children of strangers strike hands.

Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

The haughty eyes of man have been humbled, And bowed down hath been the loftiness of men, And set on high hath Jehovah alone been in that day.

For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.

And it shall bring down the pride of man, and lay man's presumptuousness full low, and the LORD shall only have the victory in that day.

And men have entered into caverns of rocks, And into caves of dust, Because of the fear of Jehovah, And because of the honour of His excellency, In His rising to terrify the earth.

In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a breath, for he is of no value.

And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them.

When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,
“You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler,
And this pile of ruins will be under your control,”

On that day he will cry out, saying:
“I’m not a healer.
I don’t even have food or clothing in my house.
Don’t make me the leader of the people!”

For Jerusalem has stumbled
and Judah has fallen
because they have spoken and acted against the Lord,
defying His glorious presence.

The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the fruit of his ways.

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him ; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him.

My people -- its exactors are sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people -- thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up.

The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What right have ye to crush my people, And the faces of the oppressed, to grind? Demandeth My Lord Yahweh of hosts - And Yahweh saith -

Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving with the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling,

And lamented and mourned have her openings, Yea, she hath been emptied, on the earth she sitteth!

And taken hold have seven women on one man, In that day, saying, 'Our own bread we do eat, And our own raiment we put on, Only, let thy name be called over us, Remove thou our reproach.'

In that day the Branch of the Lord will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be excellent and lovely to those of Israel who have survived.

And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion, and of those who have been kept from destruction in Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

And I make it a waste, It is not pruned, nor arranged, And gone up have brier and thorn, And on the thick clouds I lay a charge, From raining upon it rain.

Woe to those joining house to house, Field to field they bring near, till there is no place, And ye have been settled by yourselves In the midst of the land!

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

And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Thus shall man have a fall; he shall be brought low, and the high looks of the proud shall be laid down.

And fed have lambs according to their leading, And waste places of the fat ones Do sojourners consume.

Ah! [Those who are] wise in their own eyes and have understanding {in their view}!

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane!

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your lips have been touched with this; and your evil is taken away, and you are made clean from sin.

And I say, 'Till when, O Lord?' And He saith, 'Surely till cities have been wasted without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the ground be wasted -- a desolation,

And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

And yet in it a tenth, and it hath turned, And hath been for a burning, As a teil-tree, and as an oak, that in falling, Have substance in them, The holy seed is its substance!'

When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.

And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.

Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not have faith, your kingdom will be broken.

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

He shall eat butter and honey, that he may have understanding to refuse the evil and to choose the good.

For before the child is old enough to make a decision between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are now fearing will have become waste.

The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

And they have come, and rested all of them in the desolate valleys, And in holes of the rocks, and on all the thorns, And on all the commendable things.

And they will give so much milk that he will be able to have butter for his food: for butter and honey will be the food of all who are still living in the land.

And all mountains that have been dug up with the hoe thither will they not come, from fear of briars and thorns; and they shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of small cattle.

I have appointed trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:

And many among them have stumbled and fallen, And been broken, and snared, and captured.

And I have waited for Jehovah, Who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, And I have looked for Him.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

for teaching and for testimony?" {surely they [who] speak like this have no dawn}.

But there will be no gloom for her who was in distress. Formerly, he brought contempt to the region of Zebulun and the region of Naphtali, but in the future he will have made glorious the way of the sea, the territory beyond the Jordan Galilee of the nations.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Thou hast multiplied the nation, Thou hast made great its joy, They have joyed before Thee as the joy in harvest, As men rejoice in their apportioning spoil.

For You will break the yoke of Israel’s burden and the staff (goad) on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.

And the people have known -- all of it, Ephraim, and the inhabitant of Samaria, In pride and in greatness of heart, saying,

'Bricks have fallen, and hewn work we build, Sycamores have been cut down, and cedars we renew.'

Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

Yet the people have not turned unto him that smote them, neither have they sought Jehovah of hosts.

And they who should have led this people forward have been causing them to stray, - And, they who are led of them are destroyed,

Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

For lawlessness, hath consumed like fire, Briars and thorns, doth it devour, - Yea it hath kindled upon the thickets of the forest, And they have rolled up as a column of smoke.

Through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, is the land consumed, - And the people have come to be, as fuel for fire, A man unto his own brother, sheweth not pity;

And cutteth down on the right, and hath been hungry, And he devoureth on the left, And they have not been satisfied, Each the flesh of his own arm they devour.

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may have the property of widows, and get under their power those who have no father.

so you won't have to crouch among those in chains or fall among the slain? "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

For I shall send him among those hypocritical people, among the people that have deserved my disfavour shall I send him: that he may utterly rob them, spoil them, and tread them down like the mire in the street.

“Is not Calno [conquered] like Carchemish [on the Euphrates]?
Is not Hamath [subdued] like Arpad [her neighbor]?
Is not Samaria [in Israel] like Damascus [in Aram]?

Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

Wherefore the LORD sayeth: As soon as I have performed my whole work upon the hill of Zion and Jerusalem, then will I also visit the noble and stout king of Assyria, with his wisdom and pride."