Destructive forces will come against her horses and her ¹  chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; ²  they will be as frightened as women! ³  Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!

These who are wise among the people will teach the masses. ¹  However, they will fall ²  by the sword and by the flame, ³  and they will be imprisoned and plundered for some time. ⁴ 

The Lord raised up leaders ¹  who delivered them from these robbers. ² 

The ropes of the wicked tighten around ¹  me, but I do not forget your law.

Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. ¹  Your sins have deprived you of my bounty.’ ² 

For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers ¹  nor blasphemers of our goddess. ² 

For he says: “By my strong hand I have accomplished this, by my strategy that I devised. I invaded the territory of nations, ¹  and looted their storehouses. Like a mighty conqueror, ²  I brought down rulers. ³ 

When someone’s ¹  prosperity ²  increases, those who consume it also increase; so what does its owner ³  gain, except that he gets to see it with his eyes? ⁴ 

oppresses the poor and the needy, ¹  commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to ²  idols, performs abominable acts,

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Bring up an army ¹  against them and subject them ²  to terror and plunder.

For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. ¹ 

A member of the crowd said to him, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that makes him mute.

and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness ¹  is a way of making a profit.

They will not need to take ¹  wood from the field or cut down trees from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons. They will take the loot from those who looted them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them, ²  declares the sovereign Lord.

There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, ¹  but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis ²  will be regarded as nothing, ³  and she whom all the province of Asia ⁴  and the world worship will suffer the loss of her greatness.” ⁵ 

Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, ¹  “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich ²  at our father’s expense!” ³ 

Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that were ¹  in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as tribute ²  to the king of Assyria.

I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people ¹  and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies, ² 

The Lord comes to pronounce judgment on the leaders of his people and their officials. He says, ¹  “It is you ²  who have ruined ³  the vineyard! ⁴  You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor. ⁵ 

Who handed Jacob over to the robber? Who handed Israel over to the looters? ¹  Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned? They refused to follow his commands; they disobeyed his law. ²