The Hebrew Prophets

Do not tell it in Gath; do not weep at all. Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.

Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.

For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.

I will again bring a conqueror against you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.

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; 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 proverb against you and taunt you with 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.’”

Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.

“Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

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 passersby 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.

Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.

This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths: