Woe to the Oppressors1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster,a from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.
6 “Do not preach” — thus they preach — “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the Lord grown impatient?b Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.c
9 The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.