5  ¹ Now muster your troops, O daughter² of troops;

siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike the judge of Israel

on the cheek.

2  ^{3 d}But you, O ^eBethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of ^fJudah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from of old,

from ancient days.

3  Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who is in labor has given birth;

then the rest of his brothers shall return

to the people of Israel.

4  And he shall stand and ^gshepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now ^hhe shall be great

to the ends of the earth.

5  And he shall be their ⁱpeace.

When the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads in our palaces,

then we will raise against him seven shepherds

and eight princes of men;

6  they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;

and ^jhe shall deliver us from the Assyrian

when he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

7  Then the ^kremnant of Jacob shall be

in the midst of many peoples

like dew from the Lord,

like showers on the grass,

which delay not for a man

nor wait for the children of man.

8  And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

9  Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10  And in that day, declares the Lord,

^lI will cut off your ^mhorses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;

11  and I will cut off the cities of your land

and throw down all your strongholds;

12  and I will cut off ⁿsorceries from your hand,

and you shall have no more ^otellers of fortunes;

13  and I will cut off your carved images

and your ^ppillars from among you,

and you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

14  and I will root out your ^qAsherah images from among you

and destroy your cities.

15  And in anger and wrath I will execute ^rvengeance

on the nations that did not obey.

6  Hear what the Lord says:

Arise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

2  ^sHear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,

and you enduring foundations of the earth,

for ^tthe Lord has an indictment against his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

3  “O my people, what have I done to you?

^uHow have I wearied you? Answer me!

4  For ^vI brought you up from the land of Egypt

and redeemed you from the house of slavery,

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and ^wMiriam.

5  O my people, remember ^xwhat Balak king of Moab devised,

and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from ^yShittim to ^zGilgal,

that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

6  “With what shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before God on high?

^aShall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7  Will the Lord be pleased with¹ thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my ^bfirstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8  He has told you, O man, what is good;

and ^cwhat does the Lord require of you

but to do ^djustice, and to love kindness,²

and to walk humbly with your God?

9  The voice of the Lord cries to the city—

and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:

“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!³

10  Can I forget any longer the treasures⁴ of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

and the scant measure that is accursed?

11  Shall I acquit the man with ^ewicked scales

and with a bag of deceitful weights?

12  Your⁵ rich men are full of violence;

your inhabitants speak lies,

and their ^ftongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13  Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,

making you desolate because of your sins.

14  ^gYou shall eat, but not be satisfied,

and there shall be hunger within you;

you shall put away, but not preserve,

and what you preserve I will give to the sword.

15  ^hYou shall sow, but not reap;

you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

16  For you have kept the statutes of ⁱOmri,⁶

and all the works of the house of ^jAhab;

and you have walked in their counsels,

that I may make you a desolation, and your⁷ inhabitants a ^khissing;

so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

7  Woe is me! For I have become

as when the summer fruit has been gathered,

as when the grapes have been gleaned:

^lthere is no cluster to eat,

no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.

2  ^mThe godly has perished from the earth,

and there is no one upright among mankind;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and each hunts the other with a net.

3  Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;

the prince and the judge ask for a ⁿbribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;

thus they weave it together.

4  The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;

now their confusion is at hand.

5  ^oPut no trust in a neighbor;

have no confidence in a friend;

guard the doors of your mouth

from her who lies in your arms;¹

6  for ^pthe son treats the father with contempt,

the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

7  But as for me, I will look to the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me.

8  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the Lord will be a light to me.

9  I will bear the indignation of the Lord

because I have sinned against him,

until he ^qpleads my cause

and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me out to the light;

I shall look upon his vindication.

10  Then my enemy will see,

and shame will cover her who said to me,

^r“Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will look upon her;

now she will be trampled down

like the mire of the streets.

11  A day for the building of your walls!

In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

12  In that day they² will come to you,

^sfrom Assyria and the cities of Egypt,

and from Egypt to the River,³

from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

13  But the earth will be desolate

because of its inhabitants,

for the fruit of their deeds.

14  ^tShepherd your people with your staff,

the flock of your inheritance,

who dwell alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;⁴

^ulet them graze in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

15  As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

I will show them⁵ marvelous things.

16  The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

17  they shall ^vlick the dust like a serpent,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall ^wcome trembling out of their strongholds;

they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

and they shall be in fear of you.

18  ^xWho is a God like you, ^ypardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the ^zremnant of his inheritance?

^aHe does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

19  He will again have compassion on us;

he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will ^bcast all our⁶ sins

into the depths of the sea.

20  You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham,

^cas you have sworn to our fathers

from the days of old.

2  The Lord is a ^djealous and ^eavenging God;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3  The Lord is ^fslow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4  He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

^gBashan and Carmel wither;

the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5  The mountains quake before him;

^hthe hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

6  Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

ⁱHis wrath is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

7  The Lord is good,

a ^jstronghold in the day of trouble;

^khe knows those who take refuge in him.

8  But with an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,¹

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9  What do you plot against the Lord?

He will make a complete end;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

10  For they are like entangled thorns,

like drunkards as they drink;

they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

11  From you came one

who plotted evil against the Lord,

a worthless counselor.

12  Thus says the Lord,

“Though they are at full strength and many,

they will be cut down and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

13  And now ^lI will break his yoke from off you

and will ^mburst your bonds apart.”

14  The Lord has given commandment about you:

“No more shall your name be perpetuated;

from the house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the metal image.

I will make your ⁿgrave, for you are vile.”

15  ² Behold, ^oupon the mountains, ^pthe feet of him

who brings good news,

who publishes peace!

Keep your feasts, O Judah;

fulfill your vows,

for ^qnever again shall the worthless pass through you;

he is utterly cut off.

2  The scatterer has come up against you.

Man the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;¹

collect all your strength.

2  For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ruined their branches.

3  The shield of his mighty men is red;

^rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

4  The chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

they gleam like torches;

they dart like lightning.

5  He remembers his officers;

they stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower² is set up.

6  The river ^sgates are opened;

the palace melts away;

7  its mistress³ is stripped;⁴ she is carried off,

her slave girls lamenting,

moaning ^tlike doves

and beating their breasts.

8  Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.⁵

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,

but none turns back.

9  Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of the treasure

or of the wealth of all precious things.

10  Desolate! Desolation and ruin!

^uHearts melt and knees tremble;

anguish is in all loins;

^vall faces grow pale!

11  Where is the lions’ den,

the feeding place of the young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

12  The lion tore enough for his cubs

and strangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.