5 The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

5:1 [1] Now muster your troops, O daughter[2] of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. ² [3] But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. ³Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. ⁴And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. ⁵And he shall be their peace.

When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; ⁶they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. ⁸And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. ⁹Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰And in that day, declares the Lord, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; ¹¹and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds; ¹²and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; ¹³and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; ¹⁴and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities. ¹⁵And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.

[1] Ch 4:14 in Hebrew [2] That is, city [3] Ch 5:1 in Hebrew

6 The Indictment of the Lord

6:1 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. ²Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! ⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?

⁶“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the Lord be pleased with[4] thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” ⁸He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,[5] and to walk humbly with your God?

Destruction of the Wicked

⁹The voice of the Lord cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!^[6]¹⁰ Can I forget any longer the treasures[7] of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? ¹¹Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? ¹²Your[8] rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. ¹³Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. ¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. ¹⁵You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. ¹⁶For you have kept the statutes of Omri,^[9]and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your[10] inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

[4] Or Will the Lord accept [5] Or steadfast love [6] The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [7] Or Are there still treasures [8] Hebrew whose [9] Hebrew For the statutes of Omri are kept [10] Hebrew its

7 Wait for the God of Salvation

7:1 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. ²The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. ³Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. ⁴The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. ⁵Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 11] ⁶for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. ⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

⁸Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. ⁹I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. ¹⁰Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. ¹²In that day they[12] will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. ¹³But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land;^[13]let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. ¹⁵As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them 14] marvelous things. ¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; ¹⁷they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.

God’s Steadfast Love and Compassion

¹⁸Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. ¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our[15] sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

[11] Hebrew bosom [12] Hebrew he [13] Hebrew of Carmel [14] Hebrew him [15] Hebrew their