The Hebrew Prophets

I have no anger in me. If it gives me briars and thorns, then, as in war, I will trample it down and burn it up at once;

unless it takes hold of my strength, in order to make peace with me, yes, to make peace with me."

The time is coming when Ya'akov will take root; Isra'el will bud and flower, and fill the whole world with a harvest.

[ADONAI] will not strike Isra'el, as he did others who struck Isra'el; he will not kill them, as he did the others.

Your controversy with her is fully resolved by sending her [into exile]. He removes her with a rough gust of wind on a day when it's blowing from the east.

So the iniquity of Ya'akov is atoned for by this, and removing his sin produces this result: he chops up all the altar stones like chalk - sacred poles and sun-pillars stand no more.

For the fortified city is alone, abandoned and deserted, like the desert. Calves graze and lie down there, stripping its branches bare.

When its harvest dries up, it is broken off; women come and set it on fire. For this is a people without understanding. Therefore he who made them will not pity them, he who formed them will show them no mercy.

On that day ADONAI will beat out the grain between the Euphrates River and the Vadi of Egypt; and you will be gathered, one by one, people of Isra'el!

On that day a great shofar will sound. Those lost in the land of Ashur will come, also those scattered through the land of Egypt; and they will worship ADONAI on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.

Woe to the haughty crown of Efrayim's drunks, to the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley belonging to people overcome by wine!

Adonai has someone strong and powerful. He comes like a hailstorm, a destructive tempest, like a flood of water, rushing, overwhelming; with his hand he hurls them to the ground.

The haughty crown of Efrayim's drunks is trampled underfoot;

and the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley, is like the first ripe fig of summer whoever sees it picks and eats it.

On that day, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will be a glorious crown, a brilliant diadem for the remnant of his people.

He will also be a spirit of justice for whoever sits as a judge, and a source of strength for those repelling enemy attacks at the gate.

But there are others reeling from wine, staggering about because of strong liquor; cohen and prophet reel from strong liquor, they are confused by wine. Led astray by strong liquor, they err in their visions and stumble when judging.

All tables are covered with vomit and feces, not a single place is clean.

Can no one be taught anything? Can no one understand the message? Must one teach barely weaned toddlers, babies just taken from the breast,

so that [one has to use nursery rhymes]? Tzav la-tzav, tzav la-tzav, kav la-kav, kav la-kav z'eir sham, z'eir sham [Precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there].

So with stammering lips, in a foreign accent, [ADONAI] will speak to this people.

He once told this people, "It's time to rest, the exhausted can rest, now you can relax" - but they wouldn't listen.

So now the word of ADONAI for them comes "precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there," so that when they walk, they stumble backward, and are broken, trapped and captured!

So listen to the word of ADONAI, you scoffers, composing taunts for this people in Yerushalayim:

Because you said, "We made a covenant with death, we made a contract with Sh'ol. When the raging flood passes through, it will not touch us. For we have made lies our refuge and hid ourselves in falsehoods"