Woe to Oppressors
1 Woe to those who scheme iniquity,
Who work out evil on their beds!
When morning comes, they do it,
For it is in the power of their hands.
2 They covet fields and then seizethem,
And houses, and takethemaway.
They rob a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord,
“Behold, I am planning against this family a calamity
From which you cannot remove your necks;
And you will not walk haughtily,
For it will be an evil time.
4 “On that day they will take up against you a taunt
And utter a bitter lamentationandsay,
‘We are completely destroyed!
He exchanges the portion of my people;
How He removes it from me!
To the apostate He apportions our fields.’
5 “Therefore you will have no one stretching a measuring line
For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.
6 ‘Do not speak out,’sothey speak out.
But ifthey do not speak out concerning these things,
Reproaches will not be turned back.
7 “Is it being said, O house of Jacob:
‘Is the Spirit of the Lordimpatient?
Are these His doings?’
Do not My words do good
To the one walking uprightly?
8 “Recently My people have arisen as an enemy-
You strip the robe off the garment
From unsuspecting passers-by,
Fromthose returned from war.
9 “The women of My people you evict,
Eachonefrom her pleasant house.
From her children you take My splendor forever.
10 “Arise and go,
For this is no place of rest
Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction,
A painful destruction.
11 “If a man walking after wind and falsehood
Had told liesand said,
‘I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,’
He would be spokesman to this people.
12 “I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel.
I will put them together like sheep in the fold;
Like a flock in the midst of its pasture
They will be noisy with men.
13 “The breaker goes up before them;
They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it.
So their king goes on before them,
And the Lordat their head.”
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/MIC/2-2e1c80df16700e1795afc3d1aeae854c.mp3?version_id=100—