CHAPTER 2
Woe
to those who devise
iniquity
and plot
evil
on
their beds!
At morning's
light
they accomplish it
because
the power
is
in their hands.
They covet
fields
and seize them,
and they take away
houses.
They deprive
a man
of his home,
a fellow man
of his inheritance.
Therefore,
this is what
the LORD
says:
“I am planning
against
this
nation
a disaster
from
which
you cannot
free
your necks.
Then you will not
walk
so proudly,
for
it
will be a time
of calamity.
In that
day
they will take up
a taunt
against you
and wail
this bitter
lamentation:
‘We are utterly ruined;
He has changed
the portion
of my people!
How
He has removed it
from me;
He has allotted
our fields
to traitors!’”
Should it be said,
O house
of Jacob,
“Is the Spirit
of the LORD
impatient?
Are these
the things He does?”
Do not
My words
bring good
to
him who walks
uprightly?
But of late
My people
have risen up
like an enemy:
You strip off
the splendid
robe
from unsuspecting
passers-by
like men returning
from battle.
You drive
the women
of My people
from their pleasant
homes.
You take away
My blessing
from
their children
forever.
Arise
and depart,
for
this
is not
your place of rest,
because
its defilement
brings destruction—
a grievous
destruction!
If
a man
of wind
were to come
and say
falsely,
“I will preach
to you
of wine
and strong drink,”
he would be
just the preacher
for this
people!
I will surely
gather
all of you,
O Jacob;
I will collect
the remnant
of Israel.
I will bring
them together
like sheep
in a pen,
like a flock
in the midst
of its pasture—
a noisy
throng.
One who breaks open the way
will go up
before them;
they will break
through
the gate,
and go out
by it.
Their king
will pass through
before them,
the LORD
as their leader.