Woe to the Oppressors
1 1Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil
2on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2
They covet fields and
3seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
3
Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against
4this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you
5shall not walk haughtily,
6for it will be a time of disaster.
4
In that day
7they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, "We are utterly ruined;
8he changes the portion of my people;
9how he removes it from me!
10To an apostate he allots our fields."
5
Therefore you will have none
11to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
6
12"Do not preach"--thus they preach--
13"one should not preach of such things;
14disgrace will not overtake us."
7
Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
15Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?
8
But lately
16my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.
9
The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.
10
17Arise and go, for this is no
18place to rest, because of
19uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.
11
If a man should go about and
20utter wind and lies, saying, "I will preach to you
21of wine and strong drink," he would be the preacher for this people!
12
I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
22I will gather
23the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold,
24like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
13
25He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate,
26going out by it. Their king passes on before them,
27the LORD at their head.