Woe to Oppressors
1Woe to those who devise wrongdoing,
Who practice evil on their beds!
Lit In the light of the morning
When morning comes, they do it,
Because it is in the power of their hands.
2They covet fields, so they seize them;
And houses, so they take them.
They Or oppressexploit a man and his house,
A person and his inheritance.
3Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“Behold, I am planning against this family a catastrophe
From which you cannot remove your necks;
And you will not walk haughtily,
For it will be an evil time.
4On that day they will take up against you a Or proverbsong of mocking
And Lit lamentutter a song of mourning and say,
‘We are completely destroyed!
He exchanges the share of my people;
How He removes it from me!
To the apostate He apportions our fields.’
5Therefore you will have no one Lit castingapplying a measuring line
For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.
6‘Do not prophesy,’ so they prophesy.
But if I.e., God’s prophetsthey do not prophesy about these things,
Insults will not be turned back.
7Is it being said, house of Jacob:
‘Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Are these His works?’
Do My words not do good
For the one walking rightly?
8
Lit And yesterday
Recently My people have arisen as an enemy—
You strip the robe off the garment
From unsuspecting passers-by,
From those returned from war.
9You evict the women of My people,
Each one from her pleasant house.
From her children you take My splendor forever.
10Arise and go,
For this is no place of rest
Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction,
A painful destruction.
11If someone walking after wind and falsehood
Had lied and said,
‘I will prophesy to you about wine and liquor,’
He would become a prophet to this people.
12“I will certainly assemble all of you, Jacob,
I will certainly gather the remnant of Israel.
I will put them together like sheep in the fold;
Like a flock in the midst of its pasture
They will be noisy with people.
13The one who breaks through goes up before them;
They break through, pass through the gate, and go out by it.
So their king passes on before them,
And the Lord at their head.”
New American Standard Bible
Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved.
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