¹Woe to the crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the withering flower of his beautiful splendor, which is on the head of the valley of fatness, to those struck down by wine!

²Look, the Lord has one mighty and strong, like a downpour of hail, a tempest of destruction, like a downpour of mighty overflowing waters; he lays it down on the land with his hand.

³The crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled with feet.

⁴And the withering flower of his beautiful splendor, which is on the head of the valley of fatness, will be like an early fig before summer: whoever sees it, while it is still in his palm, swallows it down.

⁵In that day Yahweh of hosts will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of splendor to the remnant of his people,

⁶and a breath of justice for the one who sits over justice, and strength for those who turn back battle to the gate.

⁷And these also reel with wine and wander about with strong drink: priest and prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they wander about from strong drink; they reel in the vision, they totter in decision.

⁸For all the tables are full of vomit and filth, with no place.

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he make understand the report? Those weaned from milk, those removed from the breasts?

¹⁰For it is command to command, command to command, line to line, line to line, a little there, a little there.

¹¹For with foreign lips and with another tongue he will speak to this people,

¹²He who said to them, 'This is the resting place; give rest to the weary, and this is the repose,' but they were not willing to listen.

¹³And the word of Yahweh will be to them command to command, command to command, line to line, line to line, a little there, a little there, so that they may go and stumble backward, and be broken, and be snared, and be captured.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you men of scorn, rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you said, 'We have cut a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made a pact; the overflowing whip, when it passes over, will not come to us, for we have made a lie our refuge, and in deception we have hidden ourselves.'

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Adonai Yahweh: Look, I have laid in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious corner, a foundation that has been founded; the one who trusts will not hasten.

¹⁷And I will set justice for a line and righteousness for a plummet; hail will sweep away the refuge of the lie, and waters will overflow the hiding-place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death will be covered, and your pact with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing whip passes over, you will become a trampling place for it.

¹⁹As often as it passes over, it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass over, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the report.

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch oneself out, and the coverlet is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

²¹For Yahweh will arise as at Mount Perazim, he will be agitated as in the valley at Gibeon, to do his deed — strange is his deed — and to work his work — alien is his work.

²²And now, do not mock, lest your bonds grow strong; for I have heard from the Adonai Yahweh of hosts a complete destruction, and it is decided, upon all the land.

²³Give ear and hear my voice; pay attention and hear my saying.

²⁴Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open up and harrow his ground?

²⁵Does he not, when he has leveled its surface, scatter black cumin and sprinkle cumin, and put wheat in rows and barley in its marked-off place, and spelt along its border?

²⁶His God disciplines him in justice, and teaches him.

²⁷For black cumin is not threshed with the threshing sledge, and the wheel of a cart does not turn over cumin; rather, black cumin is beaten out with the staff, and cumin with the rod.

²⁸Is bread crushed? No, he does not keep threshing it forever; he sets the wheel of his cart rumbling, and his horses, but he does not crush it.

²⁹This also has gone out from Yahweh of hosts: he has made counsel wonderful, he has made sound wisdom great.