The Hebrew Prophets

ADONAI-Tzva'ot will defend them; they will devour and trample the sling-stones. They will drink and roar as if they had drunk wine; they will be filled, like basins and like the corners of the altar.

On that day ADONAI their God will save them as the flock of his people; for they will be like gems in a crown, sparkling over his countryside.

What wealth is theirs, what beauty! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.

Ask ADONAI for rain in the spring, ADONAI who makes the rain clouds; and he will give them showers of rain, grass in the field to each one.

For the household gods talk nonsense, the diviners have seen a lie; their dreams convey delusions, and the comfort they offer is in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep in distress from lack of a shepherd.

"My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will vent it on the leaders of the flock." For ADONAI-Tzva'ot will care for his flock, the people of Y'hudah; he will make them like his royal war-horse.

From them come cornerstone and tent peg, from them the bow for battle, from them all the rulers together.

They will be like warriors trampling the mud of the streets in battle. They will fight, because ADONAI is with them; they will rout even those on horseback.

"I will strengthen the house of Y'hudah and save the house of Yosef. I will bring them back in my compassion for them; they will be as if I hadn't driven them out; for I am ADONAI their God, and I will answer them.

Efrayim's men will be like warriors; their hearts will be cheered as if from wine. Their children will see it and rejoice, their hearts will be glad in ADONAI.

"I will whistle for them and gather them, because I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as they were before;

and I will sow them among the peoples. In distant lands they will remember me; they will rear their children and then return.

I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them out of Ashur. I will bring them into Gil'ad and the L'vanon, until there is no more room for them.

"Trouble will pass over the sea and stir up waves in the sea; all the depths of the Nile will be dried up, the pride of Ashur will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will leave.

But I will strengthen [Isra'el] in ADONAI; they will travel here and there in his name," says ADONAI.

Open your doors, L'vanon, so that fire can consume your cedars.

Wail, cypress, because the cedar has fallen, those splendid trees are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan, because the thick forest has been felled.

Listen to the wail of the shepherds, because their glory is spoiled. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the Yarden's thickets are plundered.

ADONAI my God says this: "Shepherd the flock for slaughter.

Their buyers kill them and go unpunished; while those who sell them say, 'Barukh ADONAI! Now I'm rich!' Even their own shepherds show them no pity.

I will no longer show pity to the inhabitants of the land," says ADONAI. "No, I will hand every one of them over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king; they will crush the land; and I won't rescue them from their power."

So I shepherded the flock for slaughter, truly the most miserable of the sheep; and I took two staffs for myself. I called the one No'am [pleasantness], the other I called Hovalim [bound together], and I shepherded the flock.

"In a single month I got rid of three shepherds, because I grew impatient with them; and besides, they detested me.

I said, 'I'm not going to shepherd you. Whichever one is going to die, let it die; whichever is going to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and the rest can all devour each other.'"

I took my staff No'am and snapped it in two, "in order to break my covenant, which I made with all the peoples."