• Yahweh Will Judge Judah’s Leaders

  • 1 For behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water,
  • 2 The mighty man and the man of war, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder,
  • 3 The commander of fifty and the highly respected man, The counselor and the wise craftsman, And the experienced enchanter.
  • 4 And I will make young men their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,
  • 5 And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will overwhelm the elder And the dishonorable, the honorable.
  • 6 When a man grasps his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, And these ruins will be under your hand,”
  • 7 He will protest on that day, saying, “I will not be your healer, For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
  • 8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their tongue and their deeds are against Yahweh, To rebel against His glorious presence.
  • 9 The expression of their faces answers against them, And they declare their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil on themselves.
  • 10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their deeds.
  • 11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he has dealt out will be done to him.
  • 12 O My people! Their taskmasters are infants, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And swallow up the way of your paths.
  • 13 Yahweh takes His stand to contend, And stands to judge the peoples.
  • 14 Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes, “It is you who have consumed the vineyard; The plunder robbed of the afflicted is in your houses.
  • 15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the afflicted?” Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts.

  • Yahweh Will Judge Zion’s Daughters

  • 16 Moreover, Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty And walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes, And go along with mincing steps And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
  • 17 Therefore the Lord will smite the skull of the daughters of Zion with scabs, And Yahweh will make their foreheads bare.”
  • 18 In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments,
  • 19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,
  • 20 headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, enchanted charms,
  • 21 finger rings, nose rings,
  • 22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses,
  • 23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and shawls.
  • 24 Now it will be that instead of sweet perfume there will be the smell of rot; Instead of a belt, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp; Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty.
  • 25 Your men will fall by the sword And your mighty ones in battle.
  • 26 And her gates will lament and mourn, And deserted she will sit on the ground.