Woe to Oppressors

Woe to those who devise iniquity

and plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they accomplish it

because the power is in their hands.

They covet fields and seize them;

they take away houses.

They deprive a man of his home,

a fellow man of his inheritance.

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“I am planning against this nation a disaster

from which you cannot free your necks.

Then you will not walk so proudly,

for it will be a time of calamity.

In that day they will take up a proverb against you

and taunt you with this bitter lamentation:

‘We are utterly ruined!

He has changed the portion of my people.

How He has removed it from me!

He has allotted our fields to traitors.’ ”

Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD

to divide the land by lot.

“Do not preach,” they preach.

“Do not preach these things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

Should it be said, O house of Jacob,

“Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?

Are these the things He does?”

Do not My words bring good

to him who walks uprightly?

But of late My people have risen up

like an enemy:

You strip off the splendid robe

from unsuspecting passersby

like men returning from battle.

You drive the women of My people

from their pleasant homes.

You take away My blessing

from their children forever.

Arise and depart,

for this is not your place of rest,

because its defilement brings destruction—

a grievous destruction!

If a man of wind were to come

and say falsely,

“I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

he would be just the preacher for this people!

I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;

I will collect the remnant of Israel.

I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,

like a flock in the midst of its pasture—

a noisy throng.

One who breaks open the way

will go up before them;

they will break through the gate,

and go out by it.

Their King will pass through before them,

the LORD as their leader.