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6
Israel will be punished
1 Terrible things will happen to you people in Jerusalem who are not worried about anything,
and also to you leaders who live on Samaria Hill who think that you are safe.
You think that [IRO] you are the most important people in the world,
people to whom Israeli people [MTY] go to get help.
2 But go to Calneh city and see what happened there.
Then go to see the great city Hamath and see what happened there.
Then go down to Gath city in Philistia and see what happened to their city walls.
Your land/country is certainly not [RHQ] larger or more powerful than their countries were,
but they were all destroyed.
3 You are trying to not think about a day when you will experience disasters,
when your enemies will come and violently attack you.
4 You lie on beds decorated with expensive ivory,
and on soft couches.
You eat the tender meat of lambs
and fat calves.
5 You create/compose new songs
and play them on your harps like King David did.
6 You drink entire bowlfuls of wine
and you put expensive oils/perfumes on your bodies,
but you do not grieve about your country of Israel [MTY], which is about to be destroyed.
7 Your feasting and lounging on soft couches will soon end,
and you will be among the first ones to be forced by your enemies to go ◄into exile/to another country►.
Yahweh detests the Israelis for being very proud
8 Yahweh the Lord has solemnly declared this:
“I hate the people of Israel because they are very proud;
I detest their fortresses.
I will enable their enemies to capture their capital city
and everything in it.”
9 When that happens, if there are ten people in one house, they will all die. 10 If a relative who ◄has the task of/is responsible for► burning their corpses comes to the house and inquires of anyone who is still hiding there, “Is there anyone here with you?”, and that person replies “No,” the one who inquired will say, “Be quiet! We must not mention the name of Yahweh, lest he cause us also to be killed!”
11 Terrible things like that will happen because Yahweh has commanded that large houses in Israel must be smashed into pieces,
and small houses must be smashed into tiny bits.
12 Horses certainly do not [RHQ] run on big rocks,
and certainly people do not [RHQ] plow the sea with oxen.
But you have done things that no one should do:
You have distorted what is fair/right and caused it to be considered like poison [MET];
you have changed what is right and consider it to be like things that are bitter.
13 You are proud because you have captured Lo-Debar town,
and you have said, “We captured Karnaim by our own power!”
14 But the Commander of the armies of angels declares,
“I will cause another nation to attack you people [MTY] of Israel;
they will ◄oppress you/cause you to suffer► all the way from Hamath Pass in the northwest
to the Dead Sea in the southeast.”

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.