3-5 Look, here he comes! God, from his place!
    He comes down and strides across mountains and hills.
Mountains sink under his feet,
    valleys split apart;
The rock mountains crumble into gravel,
    the river valleys leak like sieves.
All this because of Jacob’s sin,
    because Israel’s family did wrong.
You ask, “So what is Jacob’s sin?”
    Just look at Samaria—isn’t it obvious?
And all the sex-and-religion shrines in Judah—
    isn’t Jerusalem responsible?

* * *

6-7 “I’m turning Samaria into a heap of rubble,
    a vacant lot littered with garbage.
I’ll dump the stones from her buildings in the valley
    and leave her abandoned foundations exposed.
All her carved and cast gods and goddesses
    will be sold for stove wood and scrap metal,
All her sacred fertility groves
    burned to the ground,
All the sticks and stones she worshiped as gods,
    destroyed.
These were her earnings from her life as a whore.
    This is what happens to the fees of a whore.”

* * *

Read full chapter

The mountains melt(A) beneath him(B)
    and the valleys split apart,(C)
like wax before the fire,
    like water rushing down a slope.
All this is because of Jacob’s transgression,
    because of the sins of the people of Israel.
What is Jacob’s transgression?
    Is it not Samaria?(D)
What is Judah’s high place?
    Is it not Jerusalem?

“Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,
    a place for planting vineyards.(E)
I will pour her stones(F) into the valley
    and lay bare her foundations.(G)

Read full chapter