• Warnings to Zion and Samaria

  • 1 Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria, Notable persons in the chief nation, To whom the house of Israel comes!
  • 2 Go over to Calneh and see; And from there go to Hamath the great; Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory?
  • 3 Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near;
  • 4 Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall;
  • 5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
  • 6 Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
  • 7 Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.
  • 8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself, The Lord God of hosts says: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it.”
  • 9 Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die.
  • 10 And when a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?” Then someone will say, “None.” And he will say, “Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”
  • 11 For behold, the Lord gives a command: He will break the great house into bits, And the little house into pieces.
  • 12 Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
  • 13 You who rejoice over Lo Debar, Who say, “Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves By our own strength?”
  • 14 “But, behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” Says the Lord God of hosts; “And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath To the Valley of the Arabah.”