2
Yahweh will punish those who oppress the poor
1 Terrible things will happen to you who lie awake at night,
planning to do wicked things.
You get up at dawn, and you do those things,
as soon as you are able to do them.
2 You want fields that belong to other people,
so you seize them;
you also take their houses.
You cheat people to get their homes,
taking away the property that belongs to their families.
3 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says:
“I will cause you people to experience disasters,
and you will not be able to escape [MTY] from them.
You will no longer walk around proudly,
because when those things happen, it will be a time of much trouble for you.
4 At that time, your enemies will make fun of you;
they will ridicule you by singing this sad song about you:
‘We are completely ruined;
Yahweh is taking our land/fields from us,
and he will give it to those who will capture us.’ ”
5 So when it is the time for the land to be given back to you people who belong to Yahweh,
there will be no one [MTY] who will be able to ◄cast lots/throw marked stones► to determine which land belongs to whom.
False prophets
6 The people who heard me say that replied to me,
“Do not prophesy such things!
Do not say that Yahweh is going to humiliate us by causing us to experience disasters!”
7 But you people [MTY] of Israel should not [RHQ] talk like that!
The Spirit of Yahweh will certainly not [RHQ] be patient with people who say such things!
People who continually do things that are righteous will certainly [RHQ] like/appreciate what I say.
8 But Yahweh says,
“Recently my people have been acting toward me like an enemy.
When soldiers return from fighting against their enemies,
you rich people refuse to return the coats of those poor soldiers who have borrowed money from you
and given you their coats to guarantee that they will pay back the money that they borrowed from you.
It is as though you are waiting to forcefully take their coats off their backs!
9 You have forced women to leave their nice homes,
and you have stolen from their children forever the ◄blessings/good things► that I wanted to give them.
10 So get up and leave here!
This is not a place where you can rest and be safe/protected,
because you have ◄defiled it/caused it to be a place that I hate►;
it will be completely destroyed.
11 You people want a prophet who will lie to you,
saying ‘I will preach that you should drink plenty of wine and other alcoholic drinks!’
That is the kind of prophet who would please you.”
Yahweh promised to restore them
12 “But some day, you descendants of Jacob, you Israeli people who have survived, I will bring you back from ◄exile/other countries►,
I will gather you together
like [SIM] a shepherd gathers his sheep from the pasture into a pen [DOU];
there will be many of you in your land/country.
13 Your leader will enable them to leave the countries where they have been exiled;
he will lead them out of the gates of their enemies’ cities,
back to your own country.
Your king will lead them;
it is I, Yahweh, who will be their king!”