Woe to Oppressors 1 UDB Terrible things will happen to you who lie awake at night, planning to do wicked things. Then you get up at dawn, and you do those things as soon as you are able to do them. BSB BSB: Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
2 UDB 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. BSB BSB: They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
3 UDB Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: "I will cause you people of Israel to experience disasters, and you will not be able to escape from them. You will no longer walk around proudly, because when that happens, it will be a time of much trouble for you. BSB BSB: Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
4 UDB At that time, your enemies will make fun of you rich people; they will ridicule you by singing this sad song about you: 'We Israelites are completely ruined; Yahweh is taking our land from us, and he will give it to those who capture us.'" BSB BSB: In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”
5 UDB 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 alive among you rich families to receive back any of that land. BSB BSB: Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.
Reproof of False Prophets (Ezekiel 13:1–16)
6 UDB 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!" BSB BSB: “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 UDB But you people talk like that! You say that Yahweh never gets angry, and that he never really punishes us." Of course, what I say certainly helps those who live in the right way. BSB BSB: Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly?
8 UDB But Yahweh says, "Recently my people have been acting toward me like an enemy. You rich people refuse to return the coats of those who have borrowed money from you, the coats they gave you to promise that they would repay their debts. You take their coats without warning, surprising them as much as soldiers returning from war would be surprised by attacks instead of safety at home. BSB BSB: But of late My people have risen up like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from unsuspecting passersby like men returning from battle.
9 UDB You have forced women to leave their nice homes, and you have stolen from their children forever the blessings that I wanted to give them. BSB BSB: You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever.
10 UDB So get up and leave here! This is not a place where you can rest and be safe, because you have defiled it. I will make sure it will be completely destroyed. BSB BSB: Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!
11 UDB 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." BSB BSB: If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
The Remnant of Israel (Micah 5:7–15)
12 UDB "But on that day, you descendants of Jacob, I will bring back from exile the Israelite people who have survived. I will gather you together like a shepherd gathers his sheep into a pen, and there will be many of you in your land. BSB BSB: I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture—a noisy throng.
13 UDB 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!" BSB BSB: One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.