God’s Word Against the Leaders

“Listen, you priests.

Pay attention, people of Israel.

Listen, royal family,

because you will all be judged.

You have been like a trap at Mizpah

and like a net spread out at Mount Tabor.

² You have done many evil things,

so I will punish you all.

³ I know all about the people of Israel;

what they have done is not hidden from me.

Now that Israel acts like a prostitute,

it has made itself unclean.

⁴ “They will not give up their deeds

and return to their God.

They are determined to be unfaithful to me;

they do not know the Lord.

⁵ Israel’s pride testifies against them.

The people of Israel will stumble because of their sin,

and the people of Judah will stumble with them.

⁶ They will come to worship the Lord,

bringing their flocks and herds,

but they will not be able to find him,

because he has left them.

⁷ They have not been true to the Lord;

they are children who do not belong to him.

So their false worship

will destroy them and their land.

⁸ “Blow the horn in Gibeah

and the trumpet in Ramah.

Give the warning at Beth Aven,

and be first into battle, people of Benjamin.

⁹ Israel will be ruined

on the day of punishment.

To the tribes of Israel

I tell the truth.

¹⁰ The leaders of Judah are like those

who steal other people’s land.

I will pour my punishment over them

like a flood of water.

¹¹ Israel is crushed by the punishment,

because it decided to follow idols.

¹² I am like a moth to Israel,

like a rot to the people of Judah.

¹³ “When Israel saw its illness

and Judah saw its wounds,

Israel went to Assyria for help

and sent to the great king of Assyria.

But he cannot heal you

or cure your wounds.

¹⁴ I will be like a lion to Israel,

like a young lion to Judah.

I will attack them

and tear them to pieces.

I will drag them off,

and no one will be able to save them.

¹⁵ Then I will go back to my place

until they suffer for their guilt and turn back to me.

In their trouble they will look for me.”