3 When Ephraim spoke, there was terror; he was exalted in Israel; but he sinned by Baal, and died. And now they sin more and more; they make themselves cast images of their silver by their knowledge, images all of which are the work of workmen. They say to them, Let the men that sacrifice, kiss the calves; therefore they shall be like the morning cloud, and shall go away like the early dew, as a whirlwind drives chaff from a threshing floor, and like smoke from a chimney. But I am Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God besides me, nor any Saviour.

4 I knew you in the wilderness, in a land of thirst. According as they were fed they were satisfied; they were filled, and their heart became elated so that they forgot me. But I was to them like a lion; like a leopard I watched the way; I met them like a bear bereaved, and rent the caul of their heart, and then I devoured them like a lioness; the beast of the field tore them. You have destroyed yourself Israel, but in me is your help. I was your king; [where is your king] now, that he may save you in all your cities ? [and] your judges, of whom you said, Give me a king and princes? I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath.

5 Ephraim is a bundle of wickedness; his sin is laid up. The pains of a woman in childbirth have come on him; he is not a wise son, for it is no time to stop in the breaking forth of sons. I will redeem them from the hand of Hades, and save them from death. I will be your destruction, death; I will be your destruction, Hades; compassion shall be hid from my eyes. Though he is fruitful among the brothers, an east wind of Jehovah shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring become dry, and his fountain be dried up, and the treasury of all his precious things be destroyed. Samaria is guilty because she has rebelled against her God; their children shall fall by the sword, they shall be dashed to pieces, and women with child shall be cut open.

6 Turn, Israel, to Jehovah your God, for you have fallen by your wickedness. Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, say to him, Forgive all wickedness, and receive [us] kindly, and we will render up the calves of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for by thee is the fatherless pitied. I will heal their defections, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him. I will be like dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, and strike his roots like Lebanon. His sprouts

shall grow, and his beauty be like the olive, and his smell like Lebanon. Those who dwell in his shade shall return; they shall revive like the grain, and flourish like the vine; its remembrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have afflicted and I will look after him; [he shall be] like a green cypress; from me is your fruit found.

7 Who is a wise man? and he shall understand these things; intelligent? and he shall know them; for the ways of Jehovah are right, and the righteous shall walk in them, but sinners shall fall in them.

5. MICAH.

The word of Jehovah which came to Micah the Morashthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

ISRAEL AND JUDAH THREATENED WITH GREAT JUDGMENTS.

1 HEAR, peoples, all of you; attend, earth, and all it contains; for the Lord Jehovah is a witness among you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, Jehovah comes out of his place, and comes down ; he walks on the high places of the earth, and the mountains melt under him, and the valleys are opened like wax before the fire, like water poured down a declivity. All this is for the wickedness of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? But I will make Samaria ruins of the field, for the planting of vineyards, and pour down her stones in the valley, and her foundations will I uncover. And all her carved images shall be broken to pieces, and all her harlot-hire shall they burn with fire, and I will make all her idols desolate, for she gathered [them] from harlot-hire, and to a harlot's hire shall they return.

2 For this I will mourn and lament, I will go stripped and naked, I will make a lamentation like jackals, and a mourning like the daughters of the ostrich, for her wound is mortal, for it extends to Judah, it reaches to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all in Bethophra, roll yourself in dust. Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir naked to [your] shame; the inhabitant of Zaanan goes not out, its station shall receive from you the lamentation of Bethazel, for the inhabitant of Maroth is in pain for Tob, for evil shall come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

3 Bind the chariot to the steed, inhabitant of Lachish; she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. Therefore you shall abandon your possessions to Moreshath of Gath, the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. I will yet bring you a possessor, inhabitant of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall go to Adullam. Make yourself bald, cut off [your locks] for the sons of your delights, enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they have gone from you into captivity.

4 Woe to those who devise wickedness and do evil on their beds; in the light of the morning they do it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they desire fields and take them by violence, and houses and take [them,] and they oppress a man and his house, and a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I devise evil against this family, from which you shall not remove your necks, nor go loftily, for it is an evil time. In that day shall one take up a song concerning you, and wail a wailing. He shall say, We [once] were; we are entirely destroyed; he has changed the portion of his people; how has it gone from me? he has divided our fields to an apostate. Therefore you shall have none to cast a line by lot in the congregation of Jehovah. Prophesy not, [they say] to them that prophesy; let them not prophesy to them, that they be not put to shame.

5 You that are called the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of Jehovah restricted? Are these his works? Are not my words good to him that walks uprightly? But long since have my people risen up against me for an enemy. You strip off the mantle before the robe of travelers who pass securely along, returning from war. women of my people you cast out of the house of their pleasures, from their children you take away my glory forever. Arise and go,

The

for this is not a rest, for it is defiled, it shall be destroyed, and its destruction shall be severe. If a man follows wind and invents a lie, [and says,] I will prophesy to you of wine and strong drink, even he shall be a prophet of this people.

6 But [hereafter] I will certainly gather all of you, Jacob, I will collect the remnant of Israel, I will put them together like sheep of Bozrah, like a flock in its fold, and they shall be tumultuous with men. A breaker shall go up before them, and they shall break down, and pass through the gate; they shall go forth by it, and their king shall pass on before them, and Jehovah shall be their head.

7 Then I said: Hear, I pray you, heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice, you haters of of good and lovers of evil, plundering men's skin off from them, and their flesh off from their bones, and who eat the flesh of my people, and strip their skin off from them, and break up their bones and divide them as for a pot, and as flesh in a kettle? Then they shall cry to Jehovah, but he will not answer them, and he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they are evil in their doings.

8 Thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets who cause my people to err, who bite with their teeth, and proclaim peace; and who, if one is not given to their mouth, even declare war against him: Therefore a night shall come on you without a vision, and darkness without a divination, and the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded, and they shall cover their lips, all of them, for there shall be no answer from God. But on the contrary, I am full of the power of the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

PROPHECY II.

JERUSALEM TO BE DESTROYED AND RESTORED.

KINGDOM OF GOD.

[3, 9; 4, 5.

THE FUTURE

1 HEAR this, I pray you, heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who hate justice, and pervert every right

way.

ness.

They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wicked-
Her heads judge for a reward, and her priests teach for pay,

and her prophets divine for money, and they lean on Jehovah, saying, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? No evil shall come on us. Therefore on your account shall Zion be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem be heaps, and the mountain of the house, high places of the forest.

2 But in the latter days the mountain of the house of Jehovah shall be established on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and the peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations, even the distant; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives, and shall not lift up sword, nation against nation, nor learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts has spoken it. For all peoples shall walk every one by the name of his God, and we will walk by the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever.

3 In that day, says Jehovah, I will gather the lame and assemble the outcasts and those whom I afflicted; and I will make the lame a remnant, and the distant one a strong nation, and Jehovah shall reign over them in mount Zion henceforth and forever. And, you tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall certainly come the former dominion, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

4 Now why do you cry on account of evil? Is there no king in you? Have your counselors perished, that pain has seized you as a woman in childbirth? Be in pain, and be in anguish, daughter of Zion, as a woman in childbirth, for now you shall go forth from the city and live in the country, and go even to Babylon; there shall you be delivered; there shall Jehovah redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

5 But now many nations are gathered together against you, saying, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes look on Zion. But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, nor understand his counsel, for he shall gather them as sheaves of a threshing floor. Arise, thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and your hoofs brass; and you shall break in pieces many peoples, and I will devote their