Bible Time

¹FOR look, Yahvah of hosts takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, ²The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder, ³The captain of 50 and the honorable man and the counsellor and the skilful carpenter and the expert counsellor. ⁴And I will appoint young men to be their princes, and mockers will rule over them. ⁵And the people will oppress one another, each one his neighbor; and the young men will provoke the elders, and the base men the honorable. ⁶When a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, and say to him, You have clothing, be our ruler, and govern this ruin; ⁷In that day he will answer, and say, I will not be a leader; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing; do not make me a ruler over the people. ⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their tongue and their actions are against Yahvah, provoking God in the majesty of his glory.

⁹Their hypocrisy witnesses against them; and they declare their sins like Sodom, they do not hide them. Woe to their soul, For they have worked evil to themselves. ¹⁰Say to the righteous that it will be well with them; for they will eat the fruit of their actions. ¹¹Woe to the wicked. It will be ill with him, for the reward of his hands will be given him.

¹²The princes will pluck my people out, and women will rule over them. Oh my people, your leaders have caused you to err, and disturbed the way of your paths. ¹³Yahvah stands up to plead, and stands to judge his people. ¹⁴Yahvah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and its princes; for you have burned the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. ¹⁵Why did you sting my people, and shame the faces of the poor? Says Yahvah of hosts.

¹⁶Because the daughters of Zion have become haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, making a tinkling with their feet, and thus provoking Yahvah; ¹⁷Therefore, the Lord will bring low the heads of the daughters of Zion, and Yahvah will lay bare their secret parts. ¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their apparel; ¹⁹And their adornments and their necklaces and the braids of their hair and their chains and their hats and their veils, ²⁰The paint of their faces, their earrings and their strings of beads ²¹And the ornaments of their legs and their bracelets and nose rings, ²²The garments of varied colors and the mantles and the fine linens, the purple garments, ²³The long outer garments, the purple robes, the scarlet robes, the wardrobe of all their adornments. ²⁴And it will come to pass, that instead of a sweet smell there will be a stink; and instead of an ornamental belt, a worker's apron; and instead of curled hair, baldness; and instead of purple robes, a girding of sackcloth; for their beauty will be destroyed. ²⁵Your mighty men will fall by the sword, and your valiant men in the battle. ²⁶And her gates will lament and mourn; and her victory will turn to defeat.