See, the Lord goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood shed upon it, and no longer conceal the slain.
You have declared, “We have made a covenant with death, with Sheol we have made a pact; When the raging flood passes through, it will not reach us; For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have found a hiding place,”—
The Lord enters into judgment with the people’s elders and princes: You, you who have devoured the vineyard; the loot wrested from the poor is in your houses.
Secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, And you said in your heart, “I, and no one else!”
Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Their root shall rot and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, the people of Judah, his cherished plant; He waited for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. Within sixty-five years, Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation. Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm! Emmanuel.
Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and now four— I will not take it back— Because they spurned the instruction of the Lord, and did not keep his statutes; Because the lies which their ancestors followed have led them astray,