Punishment is near
1Hear this word which Yahweh speaks against you, people of Israel, against the whole family which he brought up from the land of Egypt.
2“Only you have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will call you to account for all your wrongdoings.”
3Do two walk together unless they have agreed?
4Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion growl in its den unless it has seized something?
5Does a bird get caught in a snare if the snare has not been baited?
Does a tiger spring up from the ground unless it has caught something?
6If a trumpet sounds in a city, will the people not be frightened?
If disaster strikes a city, has not Yahweh caused it? 7Yet Yahweh does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. 8If the lion roars, who will not be afraid? If Yahweh speaks, who will not prophesy?
9Call on the people living in the palaces of Ashur and in the palaces of Egypt, “Come together against the hill of Samaria and see the many scandals and the oppression that is there.”
10“These people do not know how to do what is right, says Yahweh, storing in strongholds what they have taken through violence and extortion. 11Therefore this is the word of Yahweh, “The enemy shall surround the land; your strength shall be broken down and your strongholds plundered.”
12Yahweh says this, “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion a pair of legs or the tip of an ear, so shall some of you be saved, O Israelites of Samaria who loll on comfortable couches and rest on pillows of Damascus.”
13“Hear and accuse the nation of Jacob,” says Yahweh, God of hosts, 14“On the day that I call Israel to account for his crimes, I will punish as well the altars of Bethel. The horns of the altar will be broken off and fall to the ground. 15Then I will strike the winter house and the summer house. The palaces of ivory shall be ruined, and the great house destroyed.”
