Under his grapevine or fig tree
With no one to disturb him.
For it was the LORD of Hosts who spoke.
5Though all the peoples walk
Each in the names of its gods,
We will walk
In the name of the LORD our God
Forever and ever.
6In that day
—declares the LORD—
I will assemble the lame [sheep]
And will gather the outcast
And those I have treated harshly;
7And I will turn the lame into a remnant
And the expellede into a populous nation.
And the LORD will reign over them on Mount Zion
Now and for evermore.
8And you, O Migdal-eder,f
g-Outpost of Fair Zion,
It shall come to you:-g
The former monarchy shall return—
The kingship of h-Fair Jerusalem.-h
9Now why do you utter such cries?
Is there no king in you,
Have your advisors perished,
That you have been seized by writhing
Like a woman in travail?
10Writhe and scream,g Fair Zion,
Like a woman in travail!
For now you must leave the city
And dwell in the country—
And you will reach Babylon.
There you shall be saved,
There the LORD will redeem you
From the hands of your foes.
11Indeed, many nations
Have assembled against you
Who think, “Let our eye
g-Obscenely gaze-g on Zion.”
12But they do not know
The design of the LORD,
They do not divine His intent:
He has gathered them
Like cut grain to the threshing floor.
13Up and thresh, Fair Zion!
For I will give you horns of iron
And provide you with hoofs of bronze,
And you will crush the many peoples.
Youi will devote their riches to the LORD,
Their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
14Now you gash yourself g-in grief.-g
They have laid siege to us;
They strike the ruler of Israel
On the cheek with a staff.
5
And you, O Bethlehem of Ephrath,a
Least among the clans of Judah,
From you one shall come forth
To rule Israel for Me—
One whose origin is from of old,
From ancient times.
2b-Truly, He will leave them [helpless]
Until she who is to bear has borne;c
Then the rest of his countrymen
Shall return to the children of Israel.-b
3He shall stand and shepherd
By the might of the LORD,
By the power of the name
Of the LORD his God,
And they shall dwell [secure].
For lo, he shall wax great
To the ends of the earth;
4And that shall afford safety.
Should Assyria invade our land
And tread upon our fortresses,d
We will set up over ite seven shepherds,
Eight princes of men,
5Who will shepherd Assyria’s land with swords,
The land of Nimrod f-in its gates.-f
Thus he will deliver [us]
From Assyria, should it invade our land,
And should it trample our country.
6The remnant of Jacob shall be,
In the midst of the many peoples,
Like dew from the LORD,
Like droplets on grass—
Which do not look to any man
Nor place their hope in mortals.
7The remnant of Jacob
Shall be among the nations,
In the midst of the many peoples,
Like a lion among beasts of the wild,
Like a fierce lion among flocks of sheep,
Which tramples wherever it goes
And rends, with none to deliver.
8Your hand shall prevail over your foes,
And all your enemies shall be cut down!
9In that day
—declares the LORD—
I will destroy the horses in your midst
And wreck your chariots.
10I will destroy the cities of your land
And demolish all your fortresses.
11I will destroy the sorcery you practice,
And you shall have no more soothsayers.
12I will destroy your idols
And the sacred pillars in your midst;
And no more shall you bow down
To the work of your hands.
13I will tear down the sacred posts in your midst
And destroy your cities.g
14In anger and wrath
Will I wreak retribution
On the nationsh that have not obeyed.
6
Hear what the LORD is saying:
Come, present [My] case before the mountains,
And let the hills hear you pleading.
2Hear, you mountains, the case of the LORD—
a-You firm-a foundations of the earth!
For the LORD has a case against His people,
He has a suit against Israel.
3“My people!
What wrong have I done you?
What hardship have I caused you?
Testify against Me.
4In fact,
I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage,
And I sent before you
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5“My people,
Remember what Balak king of Moab
Plotted against you,
And how Balaam son of Beor
Responded to him.
[Recall your passage]
From Shittim to Gilgalb—
And you will recognize
The gracious acts of the LORD.”
6With what shall I approach the LORD,
Do homage to God on high?
Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
7Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
With myriads of streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for my sins?
8“He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And c-to walk modestly with your God;-c
9d-Then will your name achieve wisdom.”-d
Hark! The LORD
Summons the city:
e-Hear, O scepter;
For who can direct her
10 but you?-e
Will I overlook,f in the wicked man’s house,
The granaries of wickedness
And the accursed short ephah?g
11Shall heh be acquitted despite wicked balances
And a bag of fraudulent weights?—
12iWhose rich men are full of lawlessness,
And whose inhabitants speak treachery,
With tongues of deceit in their mouths.
13I, in turn, have beaten you sore,
Have stunned [you] for your sins:
14You have been eating without getting your fill,
e-And there is a gnawing at your vitals;
You have been conceiving without bearing young,-e
And what you bore I would deliver to the sword.
15You have been sowing, but have nothing to reap;
You have trod olives, but have no oil for rubbing,
And grapesj but have no wine to drink.
16Yet k-you have kept-k the laws of Omri,
And all the practices of the House of Ahab,
And have followed what they devised.
Therefore I will make you an object of horror
And l-her inhabitants-l an object of hissing;m
And you shall bear the mockery of peoples.n
7
Woe is me!a
I am become like leavings of a fig harvest,
Like gleanings when the vintage is over,
There is not a cluster to eat,
Not a ripe fig I could desire.
2The pious are vanished from the land,
None upright are left among men;
All lie in wait to commit crimes,
One traps the other in his net.
3b-They are eager to do evil:
The magistrate makes demands,
And the judge [judges] for a fee;
The rich man makes his crooked plea,
And they grant it.-b
4The best of them is like a prickly shrub;
The [most] upright, worse than a barrier of thorns.
b-On the day you waited for,-b your doom has come—
Now their confusion shall come to pass.
5Trust no friend,
Rely on no intimate;
Be guarded in speech
With her who lies in your bosom.
6For son spurns father,
Daughter rises up against mother,
Daughter-in-law against mother-in-law—
A man’s own household
Are his enemies.
7Yet I will look to the LORD,
I will wait for the God who saves me,
My God will hear me.
8Do not rejoice over me,
O my enemy!c
Though I have fallen, I rise again;
Though I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.
9I must bear the anger of the LORD,
Since I have sinned against Him,
Until He champions my cause
And upholds my claim.
He will let me out into the light;
I will enjoy vindication by Him.
10When my enemyc sees it,
She shall be covered with shame,
She who taunts me with “Where is He,
The LORD your God?”
My eyes shall behold her [downfall];
Lo, she shall be for trampling
Like mud in the streets.
11A day for mending your wallsd—
That is a far-off day.
12This is a rather a day when to you
[Tramplers] will come streaming
From Assyria and the towns of Egypt—
From [every land from] Egypt to the Euphrates,
From sea to sea and from mountain to mountain—
13And youre land shall become a desolation—
Because of those who dwell in it—
As the fruit of their misdeeds.
14Oh, shepherd Your people with Your staff,
Your very own flock.
May they who dwell isolated
f-In a woodland surrounded by farmland-f
Grazeg Bashan and Gilead
As in olden days.
15h-I will show him-h wondrous deeds
As in the days when You sallied forth from the land of Egypt.
16Let nations behold and be ashamed
Despite all their might;
Let them put hand to mouth;
Let their ears be deafened!
17Let them lick dust like snakes,
Like crawling things on the ground!
b-Let them come trembling out of their strongholds-b
To the LORD our God;
Let them fear and dread You!
18Who is a God like You,
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression;
Who has not maintained His wrath forever
Against the remnant of His own people,
Because He loves graciousness!
19He will take us back in love;
He will cover up our iniquities,
You will hurl all ouri sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20You will keep faith with Jacob,
Loyalty to Abraham,
As You promised on oath to our fathers
In days gone by.
a Emendation yields “sins.”
b I.e., the nation’s.
c Meaning of much of vv. 10–13 uncertain. They may refer to the transfer of part of western Judah to Philistine rule by Sennacherib of Assyria in the year 701 B.C.E.
d So that enemies may not gloat; cf. 2 Sam. 1.20.
e Heb. ‘aphar, a play on Beth-leaphrah; vv. 10–15 contain several similar puns.
f-f Emendation yields “Fair Achzib is.”
g A common rite of mourning; cf. Jer. 7.29.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Emendation yields “ravager.”
c On a piece of land, thus acquiring title to it; cf. Josh. 18.6 and Ps. 16.6.
d-d Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “you arise as enemies against.”
e-e Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “off peaceful folk.”
f Vv. 12–13 may be an example of such “acceptable” preaching.
g-g Emendation yields “in a fold [Arabic s&ibar;rah].”
a Syntax of vv. 2–3 uncertain.
b-b Brought down from v. 2 for clarity.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain; Septuagint and Syriac read “like flesh in.”
d As a sign of mourning; cf. Ezek. 24.17, 22; Lev. 13.45.
a For vv. 1–3 cf. Isa. 2.2–4.
b I.e., oracles will be obtainable.
c More exactly, the iron points with which wooden plows were tipped.
d Cf. Judg. 3.2.
e Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “weaklings”; cf. Ezek. 34.4.
f Apparently near Bethlehem; see Gen. 35.19–21.
g-g Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
h-h Emendation yields “the House of Israel”; cf. 5.1–2.
i Heb. -ti serves here as the ending of the second-person singular feminine; cf. Judg. 5.7 and note; Jer. 2.20; etc.
a The clan to which the Bethlehemites belonged; see I Sam. 17.12; Ruth 1.2; 4.11.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c I.e., a ruler, shepherd (v.3), to deliver Israel from the Assyrians (vv.
