Woe to the Oppressors

2 lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

2  They covet fields and nseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

3  Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against othis family I am devising disaster,1

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you pshall not walk haughtily,

qfor it will be a time of disaster.

4  In that day rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

she changes the portion of my people;

show he removes it from me!

tTo an apostate he allots our fields.”

5  Therefore you will have none uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

6  v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

w“one should not preach of such things;

xdisgrace will not overtake us.”

7  Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

vHas the Lord grown impatient?2

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

8  But lately ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.3

9  The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

10  zArise and go,

for this is no aplace to rest,

because of buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

11  If a man should go about and cutter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you dof wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

12  I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

eI will gather fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

13  iHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

kthe Lord at their head.

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3 And I said:

lHear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

mIs it not for you to know justice?—

2  you nwho hate the good and love the evil,

owho tear the skin from off my people1

and their flesh from off their bones,

3  pwho eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

4  qThen they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

rhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

5  Thus says the Lord concerning sthe prophets

who lead my people astray,

twho cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

6  Therefore uit shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

7  wthe seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

xthey shall all cover their lips,

for ythere is no answer from God.

8  But as for me, zI am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob ahis transgression

and to Israel his sin.

9  bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

cwho detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

10  dwho build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;

fits priests teach for a price;

gits prophets practice divination for money;

hyet they lean on the Lord and isay,

“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

jNo disaster shall come upon us.”

12  Therefore because of you

kZion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem lshall become a heap of ruins,

and mthe mountain of the house na wooded height.