Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

¹For behold, the Lord God of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,1

all support of bread,

and all support of water;

²the mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder,

³the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms.

⁴And I will make boys their princes,

and infants2 shall rule over them.

⁵And the people will oppress one another,

every one his fellow

and every one his neighbor;

the youth will be insolent to the elder,

and the despised to the honorable.

⁶For a man will take hold of his brother

in the house of his father, saying:

“You have a cloak;

you shall be our leader,

and this heap of ruins

shall be under your rule”;

⁷in that day he will speak out, saying:

“I will not be a healer;3

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.4

⁹For the 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 righteous that it shall be well with them,

for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

¹²My people—infants are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people, your guides mislead you

and they have swallowed up5 the course of your paths.

¹³The Lord has taken his place to contend;

he stands to judge peoples.

¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment

with the elders and princes of his people:

“It is you who have devoured6 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?”

declares 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,

¹⁷therefore the Lord will strike with a scab

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 scarves; 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 mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴Instead of perfume there will be rottenness;

and instead of a belt, a rope;

and instead of well-set hair, baldness;

and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth;

and branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword

and your mighty men in battle.

²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn;

empty, she shall sit on the ground.

¹And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”

The Branch of the Lord Glorified

²In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. ³And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, ⁴when the Lord shall have 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.1 ⁵Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. ⁶There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.