1 

I said,"Please listen, you heads of Jacob,and rulers of the house of Israel:Isn't it for you to know justice?

2 

You who hate the good,and love the evil;who tear off their skin,and their flesh from off their bones;

3 

who also eat the flesh of my people,and flay their skin from off them,and break their bones,and chop them in pieces, as for the pot,and as meat within the cauldron.

4 

Then they will cry to The LORD,but he will not answer them.Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time,because they made their deeds evil."

5 

The LORD says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, "Peace!" and whoever doesn't provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

6 

"Therefore night is over you, with no vision,and it is dark to you, that you may not divine;and the sun will go down on the prophets,and the day will be black over them.

7 

The seers shall be disappointed,and the diviners confounded.Yes, they shall all cover their lips;for there is no answer from God."

8 

But as for me, I am full of power by The LORD's Spirit,and of judgment, and of might,to declare to Jacob his disobedience,and to Israel his sin.

9 

Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob,and rulers of the house of Israel,who abhor justice,and pervert all equity.

10 

They build up Zion with blood,and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 

Her leaders judge for bribes,and her priests teach for a price,and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money:yet they lean on The LORD, and say,"Isn't the LORD among us?No disaster will come on us."

12 

Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field,and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble,and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

1 

But in the latter days,it will happen that the mountain of The LORD's temple will be established on the top of the mountains,and it will be exalted above the hills;and peoples will stream to it.

2 

Many nations will go and say,"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of The LORD,and to the house of the God of Jacob;and he will teach us of his ways,and we will walk in his paths."For the law will go out of Zion,and The LORD's word from Jerusalem;

3 

and he will judge between many peoples,and will decide concerning strong nations afar off.They will beat their swords into plowshares,and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will not lift up sword against nation,neither will they learn war any more.

4 

But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;and no one will make them afraid:For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken.

5 

Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods;but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

6 

"In that day," says The LORD,"I will assemble that which is lame,and I will gather that which is driven away,and that which I have afflicted;

7 

and I will make that which was lame a remnant,and that which was cast far off a strong nation:and the LORD will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever."

8 

You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion,to you it will come,yes, the former dominion will come,the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 

Now why do you cry out aloud?Is there no king in you?Has your counselor perished,that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?

10 

Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion,like a woman in travail;for now you will go out of the city,and will dwell in the field,and will come even to Babylon.There you will be rescued.There the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

11 

Now many nations have assembled against you, that say,"Let her be defiled,and let our eye gloat over Zion."

12 

But they don't know the thoughts of The LORD,neither do they understand his counsel;for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.

13 

Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion;for I will make your horn iron,and I will make your hoofs brass;and you will beat in pieces many peoples:and I will devote their gain to The LORD,and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

1 

Now you shall gather yourself in troops,daughter of troops.He has laid siege against us.They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

2 

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,being small among the clans of Judah,out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel;whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.

3 

Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth.Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

4 

He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of The LORD,in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God:and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

5 

He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land,and when he marches through our fortresses,then we will raise against him seven shepherds,and eight leaders of men.

6 

They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,and the land of Nimrod in its gates.He will deliver us from the Assyrian,when he invades our land,and when he marches within our border.

7 

The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples,like dew from The LORD,like showers on the grass,that don't wait for man,nor wait for the sons of men.

8 

The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,among many peoples,like a lion among the animals of the forest,like a young lion among the flocks of sheep;who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces,and there is no one to deliver.

9 

Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries,and let all of your enemies be cut off.

10 

"It will happen in that day", says The LORD,"that I will cut off your horses out from among you,and will destroy your chariots.

11 

I will cut off the cities of your land,and will tear down all your strongholds.

12 

I will destroy witchcraft from your hand;and you shall have no soothsayers.

13 

I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out from among you;and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

14 

I will uproot your Asherah poles out from among you;and I will destroy your cities.

15 

I will execute vengeance in anger,and wrath on the nations that didn't listen."