2  ^eHear, you peoples, all of you;¹

^fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and ^glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

^hthe Lord from his holy temple.

3  For behold, ⁱthe Lord is coming out of ^jhis place,

and will come down and ^ktread upon the high places of the earth.

4  And ^lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

5  All this is for ^mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

ⁿWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not ^dSamaria?

And what is ^othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

6  Therefore I will make ^dSamaria ^pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones ^qinto the valley

and ^runcover her foundations.

7  All ^sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

^tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from ^tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

8  ^uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go ^vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation ^wlike the jackals,

and mourning ^xlike the ostriches.

9  ^yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

10  ^zTell it not in ^aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

^broll yourselves in the dust.

11  Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

^cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

12  For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down ^dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

13  Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of ^eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

^fthe transgressions of Israel.

14  Therefore you shall give parting gifts²

to ^gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of ^hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

15  I will again bring ⁱa conqueror to you,

inhabitants of ^hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to ^jAdullam.

16  ^kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

^kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

6  ^vIn that day, declares the Lord,

^wI will assemble the ^xlame

and gather those who have been driven away

and those whom I have afflicted;

7  and the lame I will make ^ythe remnant,

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and ^zthe Lord will reign over them ^ain Mount Zion

from this time forth and forevermore.

8  And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you shall it come,

the former dominion shall come,

kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9  Now why do you cry aloud?

^bIs there no king in you?

^cHas your counselor perished,

that ^dpain seized you like a woman in labor?

10  ^eWrithe and groan,¹ O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for ^fnow you shall go out from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you ^gshall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued;

^hthere the Lord will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies.

11  Now ⁱmany nations

are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be defiled,

and ^jlet our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

12  But ^kthey do not know

the thoughts of the Lord;

they do not understand his plan,

that ^lhe has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13  Arise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

for I will make your horn iron,

and I will make your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples;

and ^mshall devote^{2 n}their gain to the Lord,

their wealth to ^othe Lord of the whole earth.

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

siege is laid against us;

with a rod ^pthey strike the judge of Israel

on the cheek.

2  ^{3 q}But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

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

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ^sruler in Israel,

^twhose coming forth is ^ufrom of old,

from ancient days.

3  Therefore he shall give them up ^vuntil the time

when she who is in labor has given birth;

then ^wthe rest of his brothers shall return

to the people of Israel.

4  And he shall stand ^xand shepherd his flock ^yin the strength of the Lord,

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

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

to the ends of the earth.

5  And he shall be ^atheir peace.

^bWhen the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads in our palaces,

then we will raise against him seven ^cshepherds

and eight princes of men;

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

and the land of ^dNimrod at its entrances;

and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian

^bwhen he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

7  Then ^wthe remnant 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 ^wthe 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,

^ewhich, when it goes through, treads down

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

9  Your hand shall ^fbe lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10  And ^gin that day, declares the Lord,

^hI will cut off your horses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;

11  ⁱand I will cut off the cities of your land

and throw down all your strongholds;

12  and I will cut off ^jsorceries from your hand,

and ^kyou shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

13  and ^lI will cut off your carved images

and ^myour pillars from among you,

ⁿand you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

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

ⁱand destroy your cities.

15  And in anger and wrath ^pI will execute vengeance

on the nations that did not obey.