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2. Man's Plans and God's

¹ Woe to those who plan iniquity,
   to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
   because it is in their power to do it.
² They covet fields and seize them,
   and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
   they rob them of their inheritance.

³ Therefore, the LORD says:

   “I am planning disaster against this people,
   from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
   for it will be a time of calamity.
⁴ In that day people will ridicule you;
   they will taunt you with this mournful song:
‘We are utterly ruined;
   my people’s possession is divided up.
He takes it from me!
   He assigns our fields to traitors.’”

⁵ Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD
to divide the land by lot.

False Prophets

    ⁶ “Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.
   “Do not prophesy about these things;
   disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷ You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
   “Does the LORD become Or Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?
   Does he do such things?”

   “Do not my words do good
   to the one whose ways are upright?
⁸ Lately my people have risen up
   like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
   from those who pass by without a care,
   like men returning from battle.
⁹ You drive the women of my people
   from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
   from their children forever.
¹⁰ Get up, go away!
   For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
   it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
¹¹ If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
   ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
   that would be just the prophet for this people!

Deliverance Promised

    ¹² “I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
   I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
   like a flock in its pasture;
   the place will throng with people.
¹³ The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
   they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
   the LORD at their head.”

Here the Prophet concludes his discourse respecting God’s design to cleanse Judea from its perverse and wicked inhabitants, that it might no longer be the inheritance of one people. For the land, we know, had been given to the posterity of Abraham, on the condition, that it was to be held by them as an heritage: and we also know, that a line was determined by lot whenever the year of Jubilee returned, that every one might regain his own possession. The Prophet now testifies that this advantage would be taken away from the Jews, and that they would hereafter possess the land by no hereditary right; for God, who had given it, would now take it away.

There shall not then be one to cast a line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah. And he seems here to touch the Jews, by calling them the assembly of Jehovah. He indeed adopted them, they were the people of God: but he intimates that they were repudiated, because they had rendered themselves unworthy of his favor. He therefore, by calling them ironically the assembly of Jehovah, denies that they rightly retained this name, inasmuch as they had deprived themselves of this honor and dignity. It now follows —