Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ¹  will know that I am the Lord.’”

You were different from other prostitutes ¹  because no one solicited you. When you gave payment and no payment was given to you, you became the opposite!

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram ¹  and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines – those all around you who despise you.

“Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s conduct ¹  is unjust!’ Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust? Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s conduct is unjust!’ Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ¹  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, ¹  I am about to deliver you over to ²  those whom you hate, to those with whom you were disgusted.

Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you – though you are a man and not a god – when you are in the power of those who wound you?

Realize ¹  that to them you are like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and skilled musician. ²  They hear your words, but they do not obey them. ³ 

What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ¹ 

Wherever human beings, ¹  wild animals, ²  and birds of the sky live – he has given them into your power. ³  He has given you authority over them all. You are the head of gold.

Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! ¹  Listen closely, ²  O king! ³  For judgment is about to overtake you! ⁴  For you were like a trap ⁵  to Mizpah, ⁶  like a net ⁷  spread out to catch Tabor. ⁸ 

Assyria cannot save us; we will not ride warhorses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made. For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!” ¹ 

Woe ¹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ²  to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as ³  the elite class of the best nation. The family ⁴  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ⁵ 

They say to the people: ¹  “Journey over to Calneh and look at it! Then go from there to Hamath-Rabbah! ²  Then go down to Gath of the Philistines! Are they superior to our two ³  kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?” ⁴ 

“You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” ¹  says the Lord. “Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor ²  and the Arameans from Kir. ³ 

Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ¹  It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ²  You will no longer ³  walk proudly, for it will be a time of catastrophe.

but you rise up as an enemy against my people. ¹  You steal a robe from a friend, ²  from those who pass by peacefully as if returning from a war. ³ 

Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ¹  it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ²  The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ³ 

Jerusalem, why are you ¹  now shouting so loudly? ²  Has your king disappeared? ³  Has your wise leader ⁴  been destroyed? Is this why ⁵  pain grips ⁶  you as if you were a woman in labor?