The Hebrew Prophets

More than that, I brought you up from Egypt, led you forty years in the desert, so that you could have the Emori's land.

I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, other young men of yours to be n'zirim. People of Isra'el! Isn't that true?" asks ADONAI.

But you gave the n'zirim wine to drink and ordered the prophets, 'Don't prophesy!'

"Enough! I will make all this crush you, just as a cart overloaded with grain crushes what's under it.

Even the swift won't be able to flee; the strong won't be able to use their strength, the warriors won't save themselves.

Archers won't be able to stand, the fastest runners won't save themselves, those on horses won't save themselves.

On that day even the bravest warriors will throw off their weapons and flee," says ADONAI.

"Listen to this word which ADONAI has spoken against you, people of Isra'el, against the entire family that I brought up from the land of Egypt:

"Of all the families on earth, only you have I intimately known. This is why I will punish you for all your crimes."

Do two people travel together without having so agreed?

Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion growl in his lair if it has caught nothing?

Does a bird get caught in a trap on the ground if it hasn't been baited? Does a trap spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing?

When the shofar is blown in the city, don't the people tremble? Can disaster befall a city without ADONAI's having done it?

ADONAI, God, does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

The lion has roared. Who will not fear? ADONAI, God, has spoken. Who will not prophesy?

"Proclaim it on the palaces in Ashdod and on the palaces in the land of Egypt; say: 'Assemble yourselves on the hills of Shomron! See what great tumult is seething within it, how much oppression is being done there.'

For they don't know how to do right," says ADONAI. "They store up violence and robbery in their palaces."

Therefore, here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "An enemy will surround the land. He will strip you of your strength, and plunder your palaces."

This is what ADONAI says: "As a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear; so the people of Isra'el in Shomron will be rescued, huddled under cushions in the corners of their beds."

"Hear, and testify against the house of Ya'akov," says Adonai ELOHIM Elohei-Tzva'ot.

"For when I punish Isra'el's crimes, I will also punish the altars of Beit-El. The horns of the altar will be cut off, and they will fall to the ground.

I will tear down winter houses as well as summer houses; houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed; the mansions will be no more," says ADONAI.

"Listen, you [lovely] cows of Bashan, who live on Mount Shomron, who oppress the poor and grind down the needy, who say to their husbands, 'Bring something to drink':

Adonai ELOHIM has sworn by his holiness that your time is surely coming. "You will be dragged away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.

You will leave through breaks in the wall, each woman right behind the next, and be sent off to Harmonah," says ADONAI.