Bible Browser

3For 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— ²warrior and soldier, judge and prophet, diviner and elder, ³captain of fifty and dignitary, counselor and skillful magician and expert enchanter. ⁴And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them. ⁵The 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. ⁶Someone 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.” ⁷But 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.” ⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.

⁹The 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. ¹⁰Tell the innocent how fortunate they are, for they shall eat the fruit of their labors. ¹¹Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are, for what their hands have done shall be done to them. ¹²My people—children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course of your paths. ¹³The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples. ¹⁴The 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. ¹⁵What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶The 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; ¹⁷the Lord will afflict with scabs the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts. ¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; ¹⁹the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; ²⁰the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; ²¹the signet rings and nose rings; ²²the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; ²³the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils. ²⁴Instead 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. ²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword and your warriors in battle. ²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground.

4Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes; just let us be called by your name; take away our disgrace.”

²On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. ³Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, ⁴once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. ⁵Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. ⁶It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.