6 Woe to those living at ease in Tziyon
and to those who feel complacent on the hills of Shomron,
renowned men in this foremost of nations,
to whom the rest of Isra’el come.
² Travel to Kalneh and see;
from there go on to Hamat the great;
then go down to Gat of the P’lishtim.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
³ You put off all thought of the evil day
but hasten the reign of violence.
⁴ You lie on beds of ivory
and lounge sprawled out on your couches,
dining on meat from lambs in the flock
and from calves fattened in stalls.
⁵ You make up wild songs at your parties,
playing the lute and inventing other instruments —
[imagining that you’re] like David!
⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful
and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,
but feel no grief at the ruin of Yosef.
⁷ Therefore now they will be the first
to go into exile with those being exiled,
and the revelry of those who lounged,
sprawling, will pass away.
⁸ “Adonai Elohim swears by himself,”
says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot,
“I detest that Ya‘akov is so proud,
and I hate his palaces.
I will hand over the city,
along with everything in it.”

¹¹ For when Adonai gives the order,
great houses will be shattered
and small houses reduced to rubble.
¹² Do horses run on rock?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitter wormwood.
¹³ You take pleasure in worthless things.
You think your power comes from your own strength.

“Adonai Elohim, forgive — please!
How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

“Adonai Elohim, stop — please!
How will tiny Ya‘akov survive?”

“I am going to put a plumbline in
among my people Isra’el;
I will never again overlook their offenses.
⁹ The high places of Yitz’chak will be desolate,
Isra’el’s sanctuaries will be destroyed,
and I will attack the house
of Yarov‘am with the sword.”

‘Your wife will become a whore in the city,
your sons and daughters will die by the sword,
your land will be parcelled out with a measuring line,
you yourself will die in an unclean land,
and Isra’el will certainly be exiled from their land.’”

“The end ^[b] has come for my people,
I will never again overlook their offenses.
³ When that time comes, the songs in the temple
will be wailings,” says Adonai Elohim.
“There will be many dead bodies;
everywhere silence will reign.”

⁴ Listen, you who swallow the needy
and destroy the poor of the land!
⁵ You say, “When will Rosh-Hodesh be over,
so we can market our grain?
and Shabbat, so we can sell wheat?”
You measure the grain in a small eifah,
but the silver in heavy shekels,
fixing the scales, so that you can cheat,
⁶ buying the needy for money
and the poor for a pair of shoes,
and sweeping up the refuse of the wheat to sell!”
⁷ Adonai swears by Ya‘akov’s pride,
“I will forget none of their deeds, ever.
⁸ Won’t the land tremble for this,
and everyone mourn, who lives in the land?
It will all rise, just like the Nile,
be in turmoil and subside, like the Nile in Egypt.

⁹ “When that time comes,” says Adonai Elohim,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰ I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into wailing;
I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists
and shave your heads bald in grief.
I will make it like mourning for an only son
and its end like a bitter day.

¹¹ “The time is coming,” says Adonai Elohim,
“when I will send famine over the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of Adonai.
¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
and from north to east, running back and forth,
seeking the word of Adonai;
but they will not find it.
¹³ When that time comes, young women and men
will faint from thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by the sin of Shomron,
who say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives,’
and, ‘As the way of Be’er-Sheva lives’ —
they will fall and never get up again.”

“Strike the tops of the columns until the thresholds shake!
Smash them to pieces on the heads of all the people!
Those who remain I will kill with the sword;
not one of them will succeed in fleeing,
not one of them will escape.
² If they dig down to Sh’ol,
my hand will haul them out;
if they climb up to heaven,
I will bring them down.
³ If they hide themselves on the top of the Karmel,
I will search them out and capture them there;
If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea,
I will order the serpent to bite them there.
⁴ If their enemies herd them into exile,
I will order the sword to kill them there.
I will fix my gaze on them
for harm and not for good.”

⁵ For Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot
is the one who can melt the earth with his touch,
and make all who live on it mourn.
It will all rise, just like the Nile,
and then subside, like the Nile in Egypt.
⁶ He builds his upper rooms in heaven
and establishes his sky-vault over the earth.
He summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the earth.
Adonai is his name.

⁷ “People of Isra’el, are you any different
from the Ethiopians to me?” asks Adonai.
“True, I brought Isra’el up from Egypt,
but I also brought the P’lishtim from Kaftor,
and Aram from Kir.
⁸ Look, the eyes of Adonai Elohim
are on the sinful kingdom.
I will wipe it off the face of the earth,
yet I will not completely destroy
the house of Ya‘akov,” says Adonai.

⁹ “For when I give the order,
I will shake the house of Isra’el,
there among all the Goyim,
as one shakes with a sieve,
letting no grain fall to the ground.
¹⁰ All the sinners among my people
who say, ‘Disaster will never overtake us
or confront us,’ will die by the sword.

¹¹ “When that day comes, I will raise up
the fallen sukkah of David.
I will close up its gaps, raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as it used to be,
¹² so that Isra’el can possess
what is left of Edom
and of all the nations bearing my name,”
says Adonai, who is doing this.
¹³ “The days will come,” says Adonai,
“when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one treading grapes the one sowing seed.
Sweet wine will drip down the mountains,
and all the hills will flow with it.
¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of my people Isra’el;
they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities;
they will plant vineyards and drink their wine,
cultivate gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant them on their own soil,
no more to be uprooted
from their land, which I gave them,”
says Adonai your God.