¹ Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

² And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

³ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

⁴ In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, We are utterly ruined: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove [it] from me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields.

⁵ Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.

⁶ Prophesy ye not, [thus] they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not depart.

⁷ Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

⁸ But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securely [as men] averse from war.

⁹ The women of my people ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children ye take away my glory for ever.

¹⁰ Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction.

¹¹ If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do lie, [saying], I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

¹² I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of [the multitude of] men.

¹³ The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out thereat; and their king is passed on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

¹ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

² but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet;

³ and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk:

⁵ but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

⁶ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes-

⁷ they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the [same] maiden, to profane my holy name:

⁸ and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined.

⁹ Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹ And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah.

¹² But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

¹³ Behold, I will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.

¹⁴ And flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;

¹⁵ neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver [himself]; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself;

¹⁶ and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.