3
God Will Remove the Leaders
1 For behold, the Lord
1Goᴅ of hosts
Ais going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both
2supply and support, the whole
2supply of bread
And the whole
2supply of water;
2 AThe mighty man and the warrior,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make mere
Alads their princes,
And
1capricious children will rule over them,
5 And the people will be
Aoppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his
Bneighbor;
The youth will storm against the elder
And the inferior against the honorable.
6 When a man
Alays hold of his brother in his father’s house,
saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your
1charge,”
7 He will
1protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be
your 2Ahealer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
8 For
AJerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their
1Bspeech and their actions are against the Loʀᴅ,
To
Crebel against
2His glorious presence.
9 1The expression of their faces bears witness against them,
And they display their sin like
ASodom;
They do not even conceal it.
For they have
Bbrought evil on themselves.
10 Say to the
Arighteous that
it will go well
with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For
1Awhat he deserves will be done to him.
12 O My people! Their oppressors
1are
Achildren,
And women rule over them.
O My people!
BThose who guide you lead
you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.
God Will Judge
13 AThe Loʀᴅ arises to contend,
And stands to judge the people.
14 The Loʀᴅ
Aenters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,
“It is you who have
Bdevoured the vineyard;
The
Cplunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 “What do you mean by
Acrushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord
1Goᴅ of hosts.
Judah’s Women Denounced
16 Moreover, the Loʀᴅ said, “Because the
Adaughters of Zion are proud
And walk with
1heads held high and seductive eyes,
And go along with mincing steps
And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And the Loʀᴅ will make their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of
their anklets, headbands,
Acrescent ornaments,
19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,
20 Aheaddresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets,
21 1finger rings,
Anose rings,
22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses,
23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils.
24 Now it will come about that instead of
1sweet
Aperfume there will be putrefaction;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of
Bwell-set hair, a
Cplucked-out scalp;
Instead of fine clothes, a
Ddonning of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men will
Afall by the sword
And your
1mighty ones in battle.
26 And her
1Agates will lament and mourn,
And deserted she will
Bsit on the ground.