| 1 | Now you are walled about with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike upon the cheek the ruler of Israel. |
| 2 | But you, O Bethlehem Eph'rathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. |
| 3 | Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return to the people of Israel. |
| 4 | And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. |
| 5 | And this shall be peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land and treads upon our soil, that we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; |
| 6 | they shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; and they shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border. |
| 7 | Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers upon the grass, which tarry not for men nor wait for the sons of men. |
| 8 | And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. |
| 9 | Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off. |
| 10 | And in that day, says the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; |
| 11 | and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds; |
| 12 | and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more soothsayers; |
| 13 | and I will cut off your images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; |
| 14 | and I will root out your Ashe'rim from among you and destroy your cities. |
| 15 | And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations that did not obey. |
| 1 | Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. |
| 2 | Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. |
| 3 | "O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! |
| 4 | For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. |
| 5 | O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Be'or answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD." |
| 6 | "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? |
| 7 | Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" |
| 8 | He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? |
| 9 | The voice of the LORD cries to the city -- and it is sound wisdom to fear thy name: "Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city! |
| 10 | Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? |
| 11 | Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? |
| 12 | Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. |
| 13 | Therefore I have begun to smite you, making you desolate because of your sins. |
| 14 | You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger in your inward parts; you shall put away, but not save, and what you save I will give to the sword. |
| 15 | You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. |
| 16 | For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels; that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of the peoples." |
| 1 | Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the vintage has been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig which my soul desires. |
| 2 | The godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts his brother with a net. |
| 3 | Their hands are upon what is evil, to do it diligently; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. |
| 4 | The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of their watchmen, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. |
| 5 | Put no trust in a neighbor, have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom; |
| 6 | for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. |
| 7 | But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. |
| 8 | Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. |
| 9 | I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I shall behold his deliverance. |
| 10 | Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will gloat over her; now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets. |
| 11 | A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. |
| 12 | In that day they will come to you, from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. |
| 13 | But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their doings. |
| 14 | Shepherd thy people with thy staff, the flock of thy inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. |
| 15 | As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt I will show them marvelous things. |
| 16 | The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; |
| 17 | they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds, they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall fear because of thee. |
| 18 | Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever because he delights in steadfast love. |
| 19 | He will again have compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. |
| 20 | Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old. |
