Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” ¹  The sovereign Lord who commands armies ²  has spoken.

Here is a message about the Valley of Vision: ¹  What is the reason ²  that all of you go up to the rooftops?

What can I say? He has decreed and acted. ¹  I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ² 

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? ¹  You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. ² 

Do you see ¹  what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ² 

Your wise men will be put to shame. They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ¹  Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what wisdom do they really have?

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’ ¹ 

You who live in Aroer, ¹  stand by the road and watch. Question the man who is fleeing and the woman who is escaping. Ask them, ‘What has happened?’

Why do you brag about your great power? Your power is ebbing away, ¹  you rebellious people of Ammon, ²  who trust in your riches and say, ‘Who would dare to attack us?’

¹ O Lord, reflect on ²  what has happened to us; consider ³  and look at ⁴  our disgrace.

“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’

and say: “‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions! She lay among young lions; ¹  she reared her cubs.

Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things you are doing mean for us?”

When your people ¹  say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what these things mean?’

he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light resides with him.

I heard, but I did not understand. So I said, “Sir, ¹  what will happen after these things?”

Give them, O Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse! ¹ 

Because the storm was growing worse and worse, ¹  they said to him, “What should we do to you to make ²  the sea calm down ³  for us?”