1 Woe to those proud people who live, overconfident on the hill of Samaria!
Woe to you, men of renown, from the first among the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!
2 Pass through Kalneh and see; from there go to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms were? Is your territory greater than theirs?
3 You hope to postpone the evil day; in fact you bring about a year of violence.
4 You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and sprawl on your couches; you eat lamb from the flock and veal from calves fattened in the stall.
5 You strum on your harps, and like David, try out new musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you do not grieve over the ruins of Joseph.
7 Therefore you will be the first to go into exile; and the feast of sprawlers will be over.
8 Yahweh has sworn by his life, “I hate the proud city of Jacob, I hate its palaces. I will hand over the city and all that fills it.”
9 In those days, if ten people are left in one house, they shall die.
10 Their kinsman will lift the corpses and bring the bones from the house; when he will say to his comrade at the back part of the house, “Are there any more?” the other will say, “No, but hush! We must not mention the name of Yahweh.”
11 For this is Yahweh’s command,
“The great house shall crumble, and the small house fall to pieces.”
12 Do horses run on craggy cliffs? Does anyone plow the sea with oxen? Well, you have turned the rights into a poisonous plant and the sentences of the court into wormwood.
13 You rejoice about unimpor tant matters when you say, “Are we not winners once more?”
14 Yet am I stirring up against you, Israel, a nation that will op press you from the pass of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.