Witnesses against Israel

¹ Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, Israelites, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying,

² “Of all the families of the earth, I have chosen only you.
Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”

³ Can two walk together
unless they have agreed?
⁴ Will a lion roar in the thicket
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out of his den
if he has caught nothing?

⁵ Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth
where no snare is set for him?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
when there is nothing to catch?
⁶ Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city,
and the people not fear?
Does tragedy fall to a city,
and the Lord has not done it?

⁷ Surely the Lord God will do nothing
without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets.
⁸ The lion has roared.
Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken.
Who can but prophesy?

⁹ Proclaim it in the palaces at Ashdod
and in the palaces in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,
and see what unrest is in her
and what oppression is among them.”
¹⁰ “Indeed they do not know to do right,” says the Lord,
“They hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”

¹¹ Therefore the Lord God says:

“An adversary will overrun the land,
and he will pull down your strongholds,
and your fortresses will be plundered.”

¹² The Lord says:

“As the shepherd snatches from the mouth of the lion,
two legs, or a piece of an ear,
so shall the Israelites be rescued
who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch,
and on the silken cushions of a bed.”

¹³ “Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,”
says the Lord God, the God of Hosts.
¹⁴ “For on the day that I punish the transgressions of Israel,
I will also destroy the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ I will strike the winter house
with the summer house,
and the houses of ivory will perish,
and the great houses will come to an end,” says the Lord.

«       »