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¹ FOR, behold, the LORD of hosts does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,² The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder,³ The captain of fifty and the honorable man and the counsellor and the skilful carpenter and the expert counsellor.⁴ And I will appoint young men to be their princes, and mockers shall rule over them.⁵ And the people shall oppress one another, every one his neighbor; and the young men shall provoke the elders, and the base men the honorable.⁶ When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, and say to him, You have clothing, be our ruler, and govern this ruin;⁷ In that day he shall answer, and say, I will not be a leader; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing; make me not a ruler over the people.⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, provoking God in the majesty of his glory.

⁹ Their hypocrisy witnesses against them; and they declare their sins like Sodom, they do not hide them. Woe to their soul! for they have wrought evil to themselves.¹⁰ Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.¹¹ Woe to the wicked! it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.¹² The princes shall pluck my people out, and women shall rule over them. O my people, your leaders have caused you to err, and disturbed the way of your paths.¹³ The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge his people.¹⁴ The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: for you have burned the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.¹⁵ Why did you sting my people, and shame the faces of the poor? says the LORD of hosts.

¹⁶ Because the daughters of Zion have become haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, making a tinkling with their feet, and thus provoking the LORD;¹⁷ Therefore the LORD will bring low the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD shall lay bare their secret parts.¹⁸ In that day the LORD will take away the beauty of their apparel;¹⁹ And their adornments and their necklaces and the braids of their hair and their chains and their bonnets and their veils,²⁰ The paint of their faces, their earrings and their strings of beads²¹ And the ornaments of their legs and their bracelets and nose rings,²² The garments of varied colors and the mantles and the fine linens, the purple garments,²³ The long outer garments, the purple robes, the scarlet robes, the wardrobe of all their adornments.²⁴ And it shall come to pass, that instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stink; and instead of an ornamental girdle, a workers apron; and instead of curled hair, baldness; and instead of purple robes, a girding of sackcloth; for their beauty shall be destroyed.²⁵ Your mighty men shall fall by the sword, and your valiant men in the battle.²⁶ And her gates shall lament and mourn; and her victory shall turn to defeat.