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2. Man's Plans and God's

¹ Woe to those who plan iniquity,
   to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
   because it is in their power to do it.
² They covet fields and seize them,
   and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
   they rob them of their inheritance.

³ Therefore, the LORD says:

   “I am planning disaster against this people,
   from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
   for it will be a time of calamity.
⁴ In that day people will ridicule you;
   they will taunt you with this mournful song:
‘We are utterly ruined;
   my people’s possession is divided up.
He takes it from me!
   He assigns our fields to traitors.’”

⁵ Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD
to divide the land by lot.

False Prophets

    ⁶ “Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.
   “Do not prophesy about these things;
   disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷ You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
   “Does the LORD become Or Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?
   Does he do such things?”

   “Do not my words do good
   to the one whose ways are upright?
⁸ Lately my people have risen up
   like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
   from those who pass by without a care,
   like men returning from battle.
⁹ You drive the women of my people
   from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
   from their children forever.
¹⁰ Get up, go away!
   For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
   it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
¹¹ If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
   ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
   that would be just the prophet for this people!

Deliverance Promised

    ¹² “I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
   I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
   like a flock in its pasture;
   the place will throng with people.
¹³ The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
   they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
   the LORD at their head.”

He proceeds with the same subject, that they refrained from no acts of injustice. It was indeed a proof of extreme barbarity not to spare women and children, for they are both weak and helpless. Their sex exempts women from violence, and their age, children. ⁸⁸⁸⁸     This verse presents several anomalies. We have “women” and the verbs in the plural, and then “house,” “her delights,” and “her children.” It may be thus rendered, —
   The women of my people ye drive away,
Each from the house of her delights;
From off her children ye take away my ornament forever.
   The word rendered in our version “flory,” is הדר, which means ornament, beauty. Piscator says, pulchras vestes quas Deus illis donavit — “the beautiful garments which God gave them.” God claimed the land of Canaan and all its blessings as his own. They took these away without restoring them according to the law. Henderson justly observes, that “ornament” is to be taken “collectively for the ornamental clothes which they wore, and with which they had been provided by Jehovah.” — Ed. Even in wars, women, and also children, escape in safety. We hence see that the Prophet, by stating a part for the whole, proves here that the people had addicted themselves to cruelty really barbarous; they were not restrained from exercising it, no, not even on women and children. Since it was so, it follows, that their boast of being the chosen people was vain and fallacious.

House of delights he ascribes to the women who, being the weaker sex, prefer being at home and in the shade, rather than going abroad. The more necessary it was that their recesses should remain safe to them. Now, what was taken away from the children, God calls it his ornament; for his blessing, poured forth on children, is the mirror of his glory: he therefore condemns this plunder as a sacrilege. The word לעולם, laoulam, designates the continuance of their crimes, as though he had said, that they were cruel without ever showing any repentance. Now it follows —