The notable men of the first of the nations,

To whom the house of Israel come! 2Pass ye unto Calneh, and see, And from thence go ye to Hamath the great;

Then go down to Gath of the Philistines;

Are they better than these kingdoms?

Or is their border greater than your border?

Ye that put far away the evil day, And cause the seat of violence to come near;

"That lie upon beds of ivory,

house, and shall say unto him that is in the innermost parts of the house: 'Is there yet any with thee?' and he shall say. 'No'; then shall he say: 'Hold thy peace; for we must not make mention of the name of the LORD.'

"For, behold, the LORD commandeth, And the great house shall be smitten into splinters,

And the little house into chips. 12 Do horses run upon the rock? Doth one plow there with oxen? That ye have turned justice into gall, And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;

But they are not grieved for the hurt of Joseph. "Therefore now shall they go captive at the head of them that go captive,

And the revelry of them that stretched themselves shall pass away.

The Lord GOD hath sworn by Himself,

Saith the LORD, the God of hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;

And I will deliver up the city with all that is therein.

'And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 10And when a man's uncle shall take him up, even he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the

That say: 'Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?' 14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD, the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath unto the Brook of the Arabah.

7 Thus the Lord GOD showed me;

and, behold, He formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. 2And if it had come to pass, that when they made an end of eating the grass of the land- -so I said:

O Lord God, forgive, I beseech Thee; How shall Jacob stand? for he is small.

3The LORD repented concerning this; 'It shall not be', saith the LORD.

"Thus the Lord GoD showed me; and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the land. Then said I:

O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech Thee; How shall Jacob stand? for he is small.

Shall not the land tremble for this, And every one mourn that dwelleth therein?

Yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River;

And it shall be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, Saith the Lord GOD,

That I will cause the sun to go down at noon,

And I will darken the earth in the

clear day.

10And I will turn your feasts into mourning,

And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins,

And baldness upon every head; And I will make it as the mourning for an only son,

And the end thereof as a bitter day.

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD,

That I will send a famine in the land,

Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

But of hearing the words of the LORD. 12And they shall wander from sea to

sea,

And from the north even to the east;
They shall run to and fro to seek the
word of the LORD,
And shall not find it.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins And the young men faint for thirst. "They that swear by the sin of Samaria,

And say: 'As thy God, O Dan, liveth':

And: As the way of Beer-sheba liveth';

Even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar; and He said:

Smite the capitals, that the posts may shake;

And break them in pieces on the head of all of them;

And I will slay the residue of them with the sword;

There shall not one of them flee away,

And there shall not one of them escape.

"Though they dig into the netherworld,

Thence shall My hand take them; And though they climb up to heaven,

Thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel,

I will search and take them out thence;

And though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, Thence will I command the serpent,

and he shall bite them.

"And though they go into captivity before their enemies,

Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them;

And I will set Mine eyes upon them For evil, and not for good.

5For the Lord, the GOD of hosts,

Is He that toucheth the land and it melteth,

And all that dwell therein mourn; And it riseth up wholly like the River,

And sinketh again, like the River of Egypt;

It is He that buildeth His upper chambers in the heaven,

And hath founded His vault upon the earth;

He that calleth for the waters of the sea,

And poureth them out upon the face of the earth;

The LORD is His name.

And close up the breaches thereof,
And I will raise up his ruins,

And I will build it as in the days of old;

Ethiopians unto Me,

O children of Israel?

LORD.

saith the

Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt,

And the Philistines from Caphtor, And Aram from Kir?

"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD Are upon the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from off the face of the earth;

Saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, Saith the LORD.

For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations,

Like as corn is sifted in a sieve, Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,

That say: 'The evil shall not overtake nor confront us.'

"In that day will I raise up

The tabernacle of David that is fallen,

of Edom,

And all the nations, upon whom My name is called,

Saith the LORD that doeth this.

13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,

That the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed;

And the mountains shall drop sweet wine,

And all the hills shall melt.

14And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel,

And they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;

And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof;

They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

15 And I will plant them upon their land,

And they shall no more be plucked up Out of their land which I have given them,

Saith the LORD thy God.

THE Vision of Obadiah.

Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom:

We have heard a message from the LORD,

And an ambassador is sent among the nations:

'Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.'

2Behold, I make thee small among the nations;

Thou art greatly despised. The pride of thy heart hath beguiled thee,

O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,

Thy habitation on high; That sayest in thy heart: 'Who shall bring me down to the ground?'

"Though thou make thy nest as high as the eagle,

And though thou set it among the stars,

I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

"If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night

How art thou cut off!—

Would they not steal till they had enough?

If grape-gatherers came to thee, Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?

"How is Esau searched out!

How are his hidden places sought out!

"All the men of thy confederacy Have conducted thee to the border;

The men that were at peace with thee

Have beguiled thee, and prevailed against thee;

They that eat thy bread lay a snare under thee,

In whom there is no discernment. Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD,

Destroy the wise men out of Edom,

And discernment out of the mount of Esau?

"And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,

To the end that every one may be cut off from the mount of Esau by slaughter.

10 For the violence done to thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, And thou shalt be cut off for ever. "In the day that thou didst stand aloof,

In the day that strangers carried away his substance, And foreigners entered into his gates,

And cast lots upon Jerusalem, Even thou wast as one of them. 12But thou shouldest not have gazed on the day of thy brother In the day of his disaster, Neither shouldest thou have re

joiced over the children of Judah In the day of their destruction; Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly

In the day of distress.

13Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of My people In the day of their calamity; Yea, thou shouldest not have gazed on their affliction

In the day of their calamity,

Nor have laid hands on their substance

In the day of their calamity. 14Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway,

To cut off those of his that escape; Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his

That did remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations;

As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee;

Thy dealing shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain,

So shall all the nations drink continually,