By the gate, and are gone out thereat;

And their king is passed on before them,

And the LORD at the head of them.

3 And I said:

Hear, I pray you, ye heads of
Jacob,

And rulers of the house of Israel:
Is it not for you to know justice?
Who hate the good, and love the
evil;

Who rob their skin from off them,
And their flesh from off their bones;
"Who also eat the flesh of my people,
And flay their skin from off them,
And break their bones;

Yea, they chop them in pieces, as

that which is in the pot, And as flesh within the caldron. "Then shall they cry unto the LORD, But He will not answer them; Yea, He will hide His face from them

at that time,

According as they have wrought evil in their doings.

Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people to err;

That cry: 'Peace', when their teeth have any thing to bite;

And whoso putteth not into their mouths,

They even prepare war against him:

"Therefore it shall be night unto you,

that ye shall have no vision; And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine;

And the sun shall go down upon the prophets,

And the day shall be black over them.

"And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded;

Yea, they shall all cover their upper lips;

For there shall be no answer of God. But I truly am full of power by the spirit of the LORD,

And of justice, and of might, To declare unto Jacob his transgression,

And to Israel his sin.

"Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob,

And rulers of the house of Israel, That abhor justice, and pervert all equity;

10That build up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity. "The heads thereof judge for reward, And the priests thereof teach for hire,

And the prophets thereof divine for

money;

Yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say:

'Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us'? 12Therefore shall Zion for your sake

be plowed as a field,

And Jerusalem shall become heaps, And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

But in the end of days it shall come to pass,

That the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the top of the mountains,

And it shall be exalted above the hills;

And peoples shall flow unto it. 2And many nations shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the

mountain of the LORD,

And to the house of the God of
Jacob;

And He will teach us of His ways,
And we will walk in His paths';

Whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days. "Therefore will He give them up, Until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth;

Then the residue of his brethren shall return with the children of Israel. And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,

In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God;

And they shall abide, for then shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

"And this shall be peace:

Who, if he go through, treadeth
down and 'teareth in pieces,
And there is none to deliver.
Let Thy hand be lifted up above
Thine adversaries,

And let all Thine enemies be cut off.

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD,

That I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee,

And will destroy thy chariots;

10 And I will cut off the cities of thy land,

And will throw down all thy strongholds;

our land,

And when he shall tread in our palaces,

Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds,

And eight princes among men.
And they shall waste the land of
Assyria with the sword,

And the land of Nimrod with the keen-edged sword;

And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land,

And when he treadeth within our border.

"And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, As dew from the LORD, as showers upon the grass,

That are not looked for from man, Nor awaited at the hands of the sons of men.

"And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples,

As a lion among the beasts of the forest,

As a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

of thy hand;

And thou shalt have no more sooth

sayers;

12 And I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee;

And thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands.

13 And I will pluck up thy Asherim out of the midst of thee;

And I will destroy thine enemies. 14 And I will execute vengeance in

6

anger and fury upon the nations, Because they hearkened not.

Hear ye now what the LORD saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains,

And let the hills hear thy voice. "Hear, O ye mountains, the LORD'S controversy,

And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth;

For the LORD hath a controversy with His people,

And He will plead with Israel. 30 My people, what have I done unto thee?

And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against Me.

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,

And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage,

And I sent before thee Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.

50 My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised,

And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him;

From Shittim unto Gilgal,

That ye may know the righteous acts of the LORD.

6'Wherewith shall I come before the

LORD,

And bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before Him with burntofferings,

With calves of a year old? "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

With ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,

The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?'

It hath been told thee, O man, what is good,

And what the LORD doth require of thee:

Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

"Hark! the LORD crieth unto the city

And it is wisdom to have regard for Thy name

Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

19Are there yet the treasures of wick

edness in the house of the wicked, And the scant measure that is abominable?

11'Shall I be pure with wicked balances,

And with a bag of deceitful weights?' 12For the rich men thereof are full of violence,

And the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies,

And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13Therefore I also do smite thee with a grievous wound;

I do make thee desolate because of thy sins.

14Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; And thy sickness shall be in thine inward parts:

And thou shalt conceive, but shalt not bring forth;

And whomsoever thou bringest forth will I give up to the sword. 15Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap;

Thou shalt tread the olives, but

shalt not anoint thee with oil; And the vintage, but shalt not drink the wine.

16For the statutes of Omri are kept, And all the works of the house of Ahab,

And ye walk in their counsels;

That I may make thee an astonishment,

And the inhabitants thereof a hissing;

And ye shall bear the reproach of My people.

7 Woe is me! for I am as the last of the summer fruits,

As the grape gleanings of the vintage;

There is no cluster to eat;

Nor first-ripe fig which my soul desireth.

"The godly man is perished out of the earth,

And the upright among men is no

more;

They all lie in wait for blood;

They hunt every man his brother with a net.

"Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; The prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; And the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul; Thus they weave it together. "The best of them is as a brier; The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge;

The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come;

Now shall be their perplexity. "Trust ye not in a friend,

Put ye not confidence in a familiar friend;

Keep the doors of thy mouth from

her that lieth in thy bosom. "For the son dishonoureth the father,

The daughter riseth up against her mother,

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

A man's enemies are the men of his own house.

10Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her;

Who said unto me: Where is the LORD thy God?

Mine eyes shall gaze upon her; Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.' 11The day for building thy walls, even that day, shall be far removed.'

12There shall be a day when they shall come unto thee,

From Assyria even to the cities of Egypt,

And from Egypt even to the River, And from sea to sea, and from

mountain to mountain.

13 And the land shall be desolate for them that dwell therein, Because of the fruit of their doings.

14Tend Thy people with Thy staff, the flock of Thy heritage, That dwell solitarily, as a forest

in the midst of the fruitful field; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,

as in the days of old.

15'As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt

Will I show unto him marvellous things.'

16The nations shall see and be put to shame for all their might; They shall lay their hand upon their mouth,

Their ears shall be deaf. 17They shall lick the dust like a serpent;

Like crawling things of the earth

they shall come trembling out of their close places;

They shall come with fear unto the LORD our God,

And shall be afraid because of Thee.

18Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth the iniquity,