1 »Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning comes they do it because they are able to it is in the power of their hands.

2 »They covet fields and seize them. They covet houses and confiscate them! They oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.«

3 Therefore Jehovah says: »Behold, against this family I plan bad things, from which you will not remove the burden. You will not be able to show pride for it is an evil time.

4 »In that day they will taunt you and speak mournfully with sorrow and much grief: ‘We are utterly ruined! He exchanged the portion of my people and removed it from me. He divided our fields and gave them to the apostate.« ’

5 »You will not have any who cast the measuring line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.

6 »Do not prophesy to me. They prophesy. But they will not prophesy these things.

7 »Will it be said, O house of Jacob, ‘Is the Spirit of Jehovah impatient? Are these his doings? Do my words not do good for he who walks uprightly?’

8 »Lately my people have become an enemy! You strip the robe off the garment from passersby, from men returning from war.

9 »You evict the women of my people from their pleasant houses. You remove the glory of their young children from generation to generation.

10 »Get up and go because this is not your resting-place. Uncleanness brings on destruction, a painful destruction.

11 »If a man who is a constant liar tells a lie saying: ‘I will prophesy to you about wine and of strong drink;’ he would be the prophet of this people.

12 »I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you. 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 will make great noise because of the crowd of men.

13 »The breaker one who opens the breachone that breaks through has gone ahead of them. They will pass through the gate and go out by it. Their king will lead them with Jehovah at the head of them.«