Chapter 2
1 Ah! you plotters of iniquity,
who work out evil on your beds!
In the morning light you carry it out
for it lies within your power.
2 You covet fields, and seize them;
houses, and take them;
You cheat owners of their houses,
people of their inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Look, I am planning against this family an evil
from which you cannot free your necks;
Nor shall you walk with head held high,
for it will be an evil time.
4 On that day you shall be mocked,
and there will be bitter lament:
“Our ruin is complete,
our fields are divided among our captors,
The fields of my people are measured out,
and no one can get them back!”
5 Thus you shall have no one
in the assembly of the Lord
to allot to you a share of land.
6 “Do not preach,” they preach,
“no one should preach of these things!
Shame will not overtake us.”
7 How can it be said, house of Jacob,
“Is the Lord short of patience;
are these the Lord’s deeds?”
Do not my words promise good
to the one who walks in justice?
8 But you rise up against my people as an enemy:
you have stripped off the garment from the peaceful,
From those who go their way in confidence,
as though it were spoils of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their pleasant houses;
From their children you take away
forever the honor I gave them.
10 “Get up! Leave,
this is no place to rest”;
Because of uncleanness that destroys
with terrible destruction.
11 If one possessed of a lying spirit
speaks deceitfully, saying,
“I will preach to you wine and strong drink,”
that one would be the preacher for this people.
12 I will gather you, Jacob, each and every one,
I will assemble all the remnant of Israel;
I will group them like a flock in the fold,
like a herd in its pasture;
the noise of the people will resound.
13 The one who makes a breach goes up before them;
they make a breach and pass through the gate;
Their king shall go through before them,
the Lord at their head.