Judgment is announced on Moab and Judah, and then on Israel itself, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, trample the poor and ignore the prophets, despite all that God has done for them.
1 Thus saith the LORD ; For three transgressions of Moab , and for four , I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime :
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab , and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth : and Moab shall die with tumult , with shouting , and with the sound of the trumpet :
3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD .
4 Thus saith the LORD ; For three transgressions of Judah , and for four , I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD , and have not kept his commandments , and their lies caused them to err , after the which their fathers have walked :
5 But I will send a fire upon Judah , and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem .
6 Thus saith the LORD ; For three transgressions of Israel , and for four , I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver , and the poor for a pair of shoes ;
7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor , and turn aside the way of the meek : and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid , to profane my holy name :
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar , and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god .
9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars , and he was strong as the oaks ; yet I destroyed his fruit from above , and his roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt , and led you forty years through the wilderness , to possess the land of the Amorite .
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets , and of your young men for Nazarites . Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel ? saith the LORD .
12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink ; and commanded the prophets , saying , Prophesy not.
13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves .
14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift , and the strong shall not strengthen his force , neither shall the mighty deliver himself :
15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow ; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself .
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day , saith the LORD .