New Living Translation

1 What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night,<br>thinking up evil plans.<br>You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out,<br>simply because you have the power to do so.<br> 2 When you want a piece of land,<br>you find a way to seize it.<br>When you want someone’s house,<br>you take it by fraud and violence.<br>You cheat a man of his property,<br>stealing his family’s inheritance.<br> 3 But this is what the LORD says:<br>“I will reward your evil with evil;<br>you won’t be able to pull your neck out of the noose.<br>You will no longer walk around proudly,<br>for it will be a terrible time.”<br> 4 In that day your enemies will make fun of you<br>by singing this song of despair about you:<br>“We are finished,<br>completely ruined!<br>God (Elohim) has confiscated our land,<br>taking it from us.<br>He has given our fields<br>to those who betrayed us. ”<br> 5 Others will set your boundaries then,<br>and the LORD’s people will have no say<br>in how the land is divided.<br> 6 “Don’t say such things,”<br>the people respond.<br>“Don’t prophesy like that.<br>Such disasters will never come our way!”<br> 7 Should you talk that way, O family of Israel?<br>Will the LORD’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?<br>If you would do what is right,<br>you would find my words comforting.<br> 8 Yet to this very hour<br>my people rise against me like an enemy!<br>You steal the shirts right off the backs<br>of those who trusted you,<br>making them as ragged as men<br>returning from battle.<br> 9 You have evicted women from their pleasant homes<br>and forever stripped their children of all that God (Elohim) would give them.<br> 10 Up! Begone!<br>This is no longer your land and home,<br>for you have filled it with sin<br>and ruined it completely.<br> 11 Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you,<br>“I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!”<br>That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!<br> 12 “Someday, O Israel, I will gather you;<br>I will gather the remnant who are left.<br>I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen,<br>like a flock in its pasture.<br>Yes, your land will again<br>be filled with noisy crowds!<br> 13 Your leader will break out<br>and lead you out of exile,<br>out through the gates of the enemy cities,<br>back to your own land.<br>Your king will lead you;<br>the LORD himself will guide you.”<br>