Woe to Those at Ease in Zion (Luke 6:24–26)
1 UDB Terrible things will happen to you people in Jerusalem who are not worried about anything, and also to you leaders who live on the hill of the city of Samaria, you who think that you are safe. You call yourselves the most important people in the world, and you are the leaders to whom Israelites go for help. BSB BSB: Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.
2 UDB You tell them, "Just go to the city of Kalneh and look at it. Then go to see the great city Hamath and to Gath in Philistia and look at it. They are all prosperous. Now your lands are better than those places, and your two countries—Judah and Samaria—are bigger. So you are safe." BSB BSB: Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?
3 UDB Terrible things will happen to you leaders! You are trying to avoid thinking about the coming time when you will experience disasters, when your enemies will violently attack you. BSB BSB: You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.
5 UDB You create new songs as if you had nothing better to do, and you play them on your harps like King David did. BSB BSB: You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments.
6 UDB You drink entire bowlfuls of wine, and you put expensive oils on your bodies, but you do not grieve about our country of Israel, which is about to be destroyed. BSB BSB: You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 UDB Your feasting and lounging on soft couches will soon end, and you will be among the first ones to be forced by your enemies to go into exile. BSB BSB: Therefore, you will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and your feasting and lounging will come to an end.
The Pride of Israel 8 UDB Yahweh the Lord has solemnly declared this: "I hate the people of Israel because they are very proud; I detest their fortresses. I will enable their enemies to capture their capital city and everything in it." BSB BSB: The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”
9 UDB When that happens, if there are ten people in one house, they will all die. BSB BSB: And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.
10 UDB If a relative who has the task of burning their corpses comes to the house and inquires of anyone who is still hiding there, "Is there anyone here with you?" and that person replies "No," the one who inquired will say, "Be quiet! You must not call Yahweh's attention to us by mentioning his name, or he may have a reason to kill us!" BSB BSB: And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”
11 UDB Terrible things like that will happen because Yahweh has commanded that the large houses in Israel must be smashed into pieces, and small houses must be smashed into tiny bits. BSB BSB: For the LORD gives a command: “The great house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.”
12 UDB Horses certainly do not run on big rocks, and certainly people cannot plow the rocks with oxen. But you have done things that no one should do: You have distorted what is fair; you have changed what is right and consider it to be like things that are bitter. BSB BSB: “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
13 UDB You are proud because you have captured the town of Lo Debar, and you have said, "We captured Karnaim by our own power!" BSB BSB: you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say, ‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’
14 UDB But Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, declares, "I will cause a certain nation to attack you people of Israel; they will oppress you all the way from Hamath Pass in the northwest to the brook of the Arabah. BSB BSB: For behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of Hosts, “and they will oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.”