Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds: in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God.

Væ qui cogitatis inutile, et operamini malum in cubilibus vestris! In luce matutina faciunt illud, quoniam contra Deum est manus eorum.

Out upon you, that lie awake over dreams of mischief, schemes of ill, and are up at dawn of day to execute them, soon as your godless hands find opportunity!

And they have coveted fields, and taken them by violence, and houses they have forcibly taken away: and oppressed a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

Et concupierunt agros, et violenter tulerunt: et rapuerunt domos, et calumniabantur virum, et domum ejus: virum, et hæreditatem ejus.

Covet they house or lands, house or lands by robbery become theirs; ever their oppression comes between a man and his home, a man and his inheritance.

Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I devise an evil against this family: from which you shall not withdraw your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for this is a very evil time.

Idcirco hæc dicit Dominus: Ecce ego cogito super familiam istam malum, unde non auferetis colla vestra, et non ambulabitis superbi: quoniam tempus pessimum est.

And I, too, the Lord says, am devising mischief, mischief against the whole clan of you; never think to shake it off from your necks and walk proudly as of old; ill days are coming.

In that day a parable shall be taken up upon you, and a song shall be sung with melody by them that say: We are laid waste and spoiled: the portion of my people is changed: how shall he depart from me, whereas he is returning that will divide our land?

In die illa sumetur super vos parabola, et cantabitur canticum cum suavitate, dicentium: Depopulatione vastati sumus; pars populi mei commutata est: quomodo recedet a me, cum revertatur, qui regiones nostras dividat?

A by-word then they shall make of you, dirge and dole of music raise over you: Stripped, stripped bare! My country’s bounds removed! Come he but once again, that so parcels out our lands, all is lost to me!

Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the cord of a lot in the assembly of the Lord.

Propter hoc non erit tibi mittens funiculum sortis in cœtu Domini.

Trust me, when lands are allotted among the Lord’s people, never shall one of yonder clan have rope to throw.

Speak ye not, saying: It shall not drop upon these, confusion shall not take them.

Ne loquamini loquentes; non stillabit super istos, non comprehendet confusio.

Prophets, leave your prophesying; word of prophecy is never for such as these, never may shame overtake them.

The house of Jacob saith: Is the spirit of the Lord straitened, or are these histhoughts? Are not my words good to him that walketh uprightly?

Dicit domus Jacob: Numquid abbreviatus est spiritus Domini, aut tales sunt cogitationes ejus? nonne verba mea bona sunt cum eo qui recte graditur?

What, cry they of Jacob, is the Lord so easily offended? Are his designs indeed so unfavourable? Nay, certain it is, if a man will follow the straight path, award of mine shall prosper him;

But my people, on the contrary, are risen up as an enemy: you have taken away the cloak off from the coat: and them that passed harmless you have turned to war.

et e contrario populus meus in adversarium consurrexit. Desuper tunica pallium sustulistis: et eos qui transibant simpliciter convertistis in bellum.

but what of you? Has not this people of mine long counted you enemies, rising up to arraign you? Robbers, that will have cloak and coat both; what marvel if simple folk are up in arms against you?

You have cast out the women of my people from their houses, in which they took delight: you have taken my praise for ever from their children.

Mulieres populi mei ejecistis de domo deliciarum suarum; a parvulis earum tulistis laudem meam in perpetuum.

My people! And you would dispossess its women of the homes they loved, take away from its children … my glory for ever.

Arise ye, and depart, for there is no rest here for you. For that uncleanness of the land, it shall be corrupted with a grievous corruption.

Surgite, et ite, quia non habetis hic requiem: propter immunditiam ejus corrumpetur putredine pessima.

Do you, in your turn, rise up and go your ways; no resting-place shall you have here; corruption most foul the guilt of this land shall breed in it.

Would God I were not a man that hath the spirit, and that I rather spoke a lie: I will let drop to thee of wine, and of drunkenness: and it shall be this people upon whom it shall drop.

Utinam non essem vir habens spiritum, et mendacium potius loquerer! Stillabo tibi in vinum et in ebrietatem; et erit super quem stillatur populus iste.

Alas, that I should be one beckoned by the spirit, and not rather some forger of lies! Wine and revel to inspire him, he might prophesy, and a people such as this take him for an oracle:

I will assemble and gather together all of thee, O Jacob: I will bring together the remnant of Israel, I will put them together as a flock in the fold, as the sheep in the midst of the sheepcotes, they shall make a tumult by reason of the multitude of men.

Congregatione congregabo, Jacob, totum te; in unum conducam reliquias Israël: pariter ponam illum quasi gregem in ovili, quasi pecus in medio caularum: tumultuabuntur a multitudine hominum.

Trust me, Jacob, I mean to assemble thee in full strength, rally all that is left of Israel in one place, thronging like sheep in fold, like herd in byre, hum of voices echoing all around;

For he shall go up that shall open the way before them: they shall divide, and pass through the gate, and shall come in by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them.

Ascendet enim pandens iter ante eos: divident, et transibunt portam, et ingredientur per eam: et transibit rex eorum coram eis, et Dominus in capite eorum.

where the breach has been made ready for them, break they out and pass on their way, sally forth with a king to lead them, with the Lord at their head!