1. How terrible it will be for those who plan to harm others! How terrible for those who make evil plans before they even get out of bed! As soon as daylight comes, they carry them out. That's because they have the power to do it.
2. If they want fields or houses, they take them. They cheat men out of their homes and property.
3. So the Lord says to them, "I am planning to send trouble on you. You will not be able to save yourselves from it. You will not live so proudly anymore. It will be a time of trouble.
4. At that time people will make fun of you. They will tease you by singing a song of sadness. They will pretend to be you and say, 'We are totally destroyed. Our enemies have divided up our land. The Lord has taken it away from us! He has given our fields to those who turned against us.' "
5. So you won't even have anyone left in the Lord's community who can divide up the land for you.
6. "Don't prophesy," the people's prophets say. "Don't prophesy about bad things. Nothing shameful is going to happen to us."
7. People of Jacob, should others say, "The Lord isn't angry with us. He doesn't do things like that"? The Lord replies, "What I promise brings good things to those who lead honest lives.
8. But lately my people have attacked one another as if they were enemies. You strip the rich robes off those who happen to pass by. They thought they were as safe as men returning from a battle they had won.
9. You drive the women among my people out of their pleasant homes. You take my blessing away from their children forever.
10. Get up! Leave this land! It is no longer your resting place. You have made it 'unclean.' You have completely destroyed it.
11. Suppose a prophet goes around telling lies. And he prophesies that you will have plenty of wine and beer. Then that kind of prophet would be just right for this nation!
12. "People of Jacob, I will gather all of you. I will bring together you who are still left alive in Israel. I will gather you together like sheep in a pen. You will be like a flock in its grasslands. Your country will be filled with people.
13. I will open the way for you to return. I will march in front of you. You will break through the city gates and go free. I am your King. I will pass through the gates in front of you. I will lead the way."