Carefully consider this, you who reject God! ¹  Otherwise I will rip you to shreds ²  and no one will be able to rescue you.

All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice, for those who want to harm me ¹  will be embarrassed and ashamed. ² 

They say to themselves, ¹  “We will oppress all of them.” ²  They burn down all the places where people worship God in the land. ³ 

when those who keep watch over the house ¹  begin to tremble, ²  and the virile men begin to stoop over, ³  and the grinders ⁴  begin to cease because they grow few, and those who look through the windows grow dim, ⁵ 

and the doors along the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding mill ¹  grows low, and one is awakened ²  by the sound of a bird, and all their ³  songs ⁴  grow faint, ⁵ 

I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies; they are a burden that I am tired of carrying.

The people will treat each other harshly; men will oppose each other; neighbors will fight. ¹  Youths will proudly defy the elderly and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ² 

For Syria’s leader is Damascus, and the leader of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. ¹ 

“Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” ¹ 

to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive ¹  the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans. ² 

¹ I will punish the world for its evil, ²  and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. ³ 

Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹  they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ²  they will not ³  look with pity on children.

It ¹  furiously struck down nations with unceasing blows. ²  It angrily ruled over nations, oppressing them without restraint. ³ 

So Moab wails over its demise ¹  – they all wail! Completely devastated, they moan about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. ² 

The earth will stagger around ¹  like a drunk; it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. ²  Its sin will weigh it down, and it will fall and never get up again.

For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants ¹  is like a winter rainstorm, ² 

The fortified city (along with the very tops of your ¹  walls) ²  he will knock down, he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground. ³ 

Indeed, ¹  the Lord knocks down those who live in a high place, he brings down an elevated town; he brings it down to the ground, ²  he throws it down to the dust.

Your treaty with death will be dissolved; ¹  your agreement ²  with Sheol will not last. ³  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, ⁴  you will be overrun by it. ⁵ 

So now, do not mock, or your chains will become heavier! For I have heard a message about decreed destruction, from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ¹