2:1  Woe to those who scheme iniquity, Who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, For it is in the power of their hands.

2:2  They covet fields and then seize {them,} And houses, and take {them} away. They rob a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.

2:3  Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am planning against this family a calamity From which you cannot remove your necks; And you will not walk haughtily, For it will be an evil time.

2:4  "On that day they will take up against you a taunt And utter a bitter lamentation {and} say, `We are completely destroyed! He exchanges the portion of my people; How He removes it from me! To the apostate He apportions our fields.'

2:5  "Therefore you will have no one stretching a measuring line For you by lot in the assembly of the LORD.

2:6  `Do not speak out,' {so} they speak out. {But if} they do not speak out concerning these things, Reproaches will not be turned back.

2:7  "Is it being said, O house of Jacob: `Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these His doings?' Do not My words do good To the one walking uprightly?

2:8  "Recently My people have arisen as an enemy-- You strip the robe off the garment From unsuspecting passers-by, {From} those returned from war.

2:9  "The women of My people you evict, Each {one} from her pleasant house. From her children you take My splendor forever.

2:10  "Arise and go, For this is no place of rest Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction, A painful destruction.

2:11  "If a man walking after wind and falsehood Had told lies {and said,} `I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,' He would be spokesman to this people.

2:12  "I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; Like a flock in the midst of its pasture They will be noisy with men.

2:13  "The breaker goes up before them; They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their king goes on before them, And the LORD at their head."