¹Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

• ²“You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth.
• Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”

• ³Do two walk together,
• unless they have agreed?

• ⁴Will a lion roar in the thicket,
• when he has no prey?

• Does a young lion cry out of his den,
• if he has caught nothing?

• ⁵Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth,
• where no snare is set for him?

• Does a snare spring up from the ground,
• when there is nothing to catch?

• ⁶Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city,
• without the people being afraid?

• Does evil happen to a city,
• and Yahweh hasn’t done it?

• ⁷Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing,
• unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

• ⁸The lion has roared.
• Who will not fear?

• The Lord Yahweh has spoken.
• Who can but prophesy?

• ⁹Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod,
• and in the palaces in the land of Egypt,

• and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,
• and see what unrest is in her,
• and what oppression is among them.”

• ¹⁰“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh,
• “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh:

• “An adversary will overrun the land;
• and he will pull down your strongholds,
• and your fortresses will be plundered.”

¹²Thus says Yahweh:

• “As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs,
• or a piece of an ear,
• so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch,
• and on the silken cushions of a bed.”

¹³“Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies.

• ¹⁴“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him,
• I will also visit the altars of Bethel;
• and the horns of the altar will be cut off,
• and fall to the ground.

• ¹⁵I will strike the winter house with the summer house;
• and the houses of ivory will perish,
• and the great houses will have an end,”

says Yahweh.