Dual Panel1Woe betide those who lie in bed planning evil and wicked deeds, and rise at daybreak to do them, knowing that they have the power to do evil!
2They covet fields and take them by force; if they want a house they seize it; they lay hands on both householder and house, on a man and all he possesses.
3Therefore these are the words of the LORD: I am planning disaster for this nation, a yoke which you cannot remove from your necks; you will not walk haughtily, for the hour of disaster will have come.
4On that day there will be heard this verse about you, this sorrowful lamentation: “We are utterly despoiled, for our people's land changes hands. It is taken away from us; our fields are parcelled out to renegades.”
5Therefore there will be no one to allot you any share in the LORD's assembly.
6“Do not hold forth,” they say, holding forth themselves. But do not they hold forth about these things? Do not they spin words?
7House of Jacob, can one ask, “Is the LORD's patience truly at an end? Are these his deeds? Does good not come of his words? Is he not with those who are upright?”
8But you are not my people; you rise up as my enemy to my face, to strip the cloaks from travellers who felt safe or from men returning from the battle,
9to drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes, and rob their children of my glory for ever.
10Up and be gone! This is no resting-place for you; to defile yourselves you would commit any mischief however cruel.
11If anyone had gone about uttering falsehood and lies, saying: “I shall hold forth to you about wine and strong drink,” his holding forth would be just what this people likes.
12I shall assemble you, the whole house of Jacob; I shall gather together those that are left in Israel. I shall herd them like sheep into a fold, like a flock in the pasture, moved away by men.
13Their leader breaks out before them, and they all break through the gate and go out with their King going before them, the LORD leading the way.