For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and staff— all support of bread, and all support of water—

warrior and soldier, judge and prophet, diviner and elder,

captain of fifty and dignitary, counselor and skillful magician and expert enchanter.

And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

The people will be oppressed, everyone by another and everyone by a neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base to the honorable.

Someone will even seize a relative, a member of the clan, saying, “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule.”

But the other will cry out on that day, saying, “I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.”

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord , defying his glorious presence.

The look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the innocent how fortunate they are, for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.

Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.

My people—children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course of your paths.

The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples.

The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.

The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet;

the Lord will afflict with scabs the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;

the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs;

the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;

the signet rings and nose rings;

the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags;

the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

Instead of perfume there will be a stench; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.

Your men shall fall by the sword and your warriors in battle.

And her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground.

An Oracle concerning Moab

An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.

Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn;

in the streets they bind on sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears.

Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the loins of Moab quiver; his soul trembles.

My heart cries out for Moab; his fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction;

the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the new growth fails, the verdure is no more.

Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Wadi of the Willows.

For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; the wailing reaches to Eglaim, the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; yet I will bring upon Dibon even more— a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.

A Warning of Destruction of Jerusalem

The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,

you that are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain by the sword, nor are they dead in battle.

Your rulers have all fled together; they were captured without the use of a bow. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.

Therefore I said: Look away from me, let me weep bitter tears; do not try to comfort me for the destruction of my beloved people.

For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a cry for help to the mountains.

Elam bore the quiver with chariots and cavalry, and Kir uncovered the shield.

Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.

He has taken away the covering of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,

and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.

You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

In that day the Lord God of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and putting on sackcloth;

but instead there was joy and festivity, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of hosts.
Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials

Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:

What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock?

The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you,

whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master's house!

I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah,

and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.

I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.

And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.

On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.