Warnings to Zion and Samaria
1Woe to you who are at ease in Zion,
And trust in Mount Samaria,
Notable persons in the chief nation,
To whom the house of Israel comes!
2Go over to Calneh and see;
And from there go to Hamath the great;
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3Woe to you who put far off the day of doom,
Who cause the seat of violence to come near;
4Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock
And calves from the midst of the stall;
5Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
6Who drink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives,
And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.
8The Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”
9Then it shall come to pass, that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die.
10And when [a]a relative of the dead, with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the [b]bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, “Are there any more with you?”
Then someone will say, “None.”
And he will say, “Hold your tongue! For we dare not mention the name of the Lord.”
11For behold, the Lord gives a command:
He will break the great house into bits,
And the little house into pieces.
12Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into gall,
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13You who rejoice over [c]Lo Debar,
Who say, “Have we not taken [d]Karnaim for ourselves
By our own strength?”
14“But, behold, I will raise up a nation against you,
O house of Israel,”
Says the Lord God of hosts;
“And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath
To the Valley of the Arabah.”
