Prophecies against Neighboring Nations
The burden of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach, with aDamascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord),
2 And aHamath also, which borders on it;
bTyre and cSidon, though they are bvery wise.
3 For Tyre built herself a afortress
And bpiled up silver like dust,
And cgold like the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will adispossess her
And cast her wealth into the sea;
And she will be bconsumed with fire.
5 Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.
Gaza too will writhe in great pain;
Also Ekron, for her expectation has been confounded.
Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.
6 And a mongrel race will dwell in aAshdod,
And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 And I will remove their blood from their mouth
And their detestable things from between their teeth.
Then they also will be a remnant for our God,
And be like a clan in Judah,
And Ekron like a Jebusite.
8 But I will camp around My house because of an army,
Because of ahim who passes by and returns;
And bno oppressor will pass over them anymore,
For now I have seen with My eyes.
9 aRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your bking is coming to you;
He is cjust and dendowed with salvation,
eHumble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a fcolt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will acut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the bhorse from Jerusalem;
And the cbow of war will be cut off.
And He will speak dpeace to the nations;
And His edominion will be from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.
Deliverance of Judah and Ephraim
11 As for you also, because of the ablood of My covenant with you,
I have set your bprisoners free from the waterless pit.
12 Return to the astronghold, O prisoners who have the bhope;
This very day I am declaring that I will restore cdouble to you.
13 For I will abend Judah as My bow,
I will fill the bow with Ephraim.
And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O bGreece;
And I will make you like a cwarrior’s sword.
14 Then the Lord will appear aover them,
And His barrow will go forth like lightning;
And the Lord God will blow the ctrumpet,
And will march in the dstorm winds of the south.
15 aThe Lord of hosts will defend them.
And they will bdevour and trample on the csling stones;
And they will drink and be dboisterous as with wine;
And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin,
Drenched like the ecorners of the altar.
16 And the Lord their God will asave them in that day
As the flock of His people;
For they are as the stones of a bcrown,
Sparkling in His land.
17 For what acomeliness and bbeauty will be theirs!
Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
God Will Bless Judah and Ephraim
Ask arain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain—
The Lord who bmakes the storm clouds;
And He will give them cshowers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.
2 For the ateraphim speak iniquity,
And the bdiviners see lying visions
And tell cfalse dreams;
They comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like dsheep,
They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.
3 “My aanger is kindled against the shepherds,
And I will punish the male goats;
For the Lord of hosts has bvisited His flock, the house of Judah,
And will make them like His majestic horse in battle.
4 “From them will come the acornerstone,
From them the tent peg,
From them the bow of bbattle,
From them every ruler, all of them together.
5 “They will be as mighty men,
aTreading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle;
And they will fight, for the Lord will be with them;
And the briders on horses will be put to shame.
6 “I will astrengthen the house of Judah,
And I will bsave the house of Joseph,
And I will cbring them back,
Because I have had dcompassion on them;
And they will be as though I had enot rejected them,
For I am the Lord their God and I will fanswer them.
7 “Ephraim will be like a mighty man,
And their heart will be glad as if from wine;
Indeed, their achildren will see it and be glad,
Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.
8 “I will awhistle for them to gather them together,
For I have redeemed them;
And they will be as bnumerous as they cwere before.
9 “When I scatter them among the peoples,
They will aremember Me in far countries,
And they with their children will live and come back.
10 “I will abring them back from the land of Egypt
And gather them from Assyria;
And I will bring them into the land of bGilead and Lebanon
Until cno room can be found for them.
11 “And they will pass through the asea of distress
And He will strike the waves in the sea,
So that all the depths of the bNile will dry up;
And the pride of cAssyria will be brought down
And the scepter of dEgypt will depart.
12 “And I will astrengthen them in the Lord,
And in His name bthey will walk,” declares the Lord.
The Doomed Flock
Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That a afire may feed on your bcedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the impenetrable forest has come down.
3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ awail,
For their glory is ruined;
There is a bsound of the young lions’ roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to aslaughter. 5 Those who buy them slay them and go aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for bI have become rich!’ And their cown shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For I will ano longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will bcause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will cnot deliver them from their power.”
7 So I apastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two cstaffs: the one I called dFavor and the other I called eUnion; so I pastured the flock. 8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. 9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to adie, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10 I took my staff aFavor and cut it in pieces, to bbreak my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the aafflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. 12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my awages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out bthirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the apotter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. 14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff aUnion, to bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a afoolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will anot care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.
17 “aWoe to the worthless shepherd
Who leaves the flock!
A bsword will be on his arm
And on his right eye!
His carm will be totally withered
And his right eye will be blind.”