The Degenerate City

21 How the faithful city

has become a whore!

She that was full of justice,

righteousness lodged in her—

but now murderers!

22 Your silver has become dross,

your wine is mixed with water.

23 Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not defend the orphan,

and the widow’s cause does not come before them.

24 Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:

Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies,

and avenge myself on my foes!

25 I will turn my hand against you;

I will smelt away your dross as with lye

and remove all your alloy.

26 And I will restore your judges as at the first,

and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,

the faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice,

and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28 But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29 For you shall be ashamed of the oaks

in which you delighted;

and you shall blush for the gardens

that you have chosen.

30 For you shall be like an oak

whose leaf withers,

and like a garden without water.

31 The strong shall become like tinder,

and their workb like a spark;

they and their work shall burn together,

with no one to quench them.

The Future House of God

(Mic 4:1–5)

2 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In days to come

the mountain of the Lord’s house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised above the hills;

all the nations shall stream to it.

3 Many peoples shall come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.

Judgment Pronounced on Arrogance

5 O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the Lord!