LORD, False Accusers Have Risen Up!

LORD, false accusers have risen up!

Had they not seen, o LORD

Had they not seen what was done to the wicked ones

Whom your people were tormented by?

Had they not seen

How they belched forth words

And were destroyed in a moment?

 

LORD? How long shall they shoot forth lies

At the merciful ones?

How long shall they speak vanity

And shame the counsel of the poor?

 

LORD, there is no violence in our hands

We of Israel.

There is no malice nor intent to destroy in our hearts.

We go forth, spreading forth our seed

We wait for the harvest.

We look to the ground

And see the shoots springing forth.

We wait on these, like a harvest

Bountiful to our God.

 

Father, the harvest springs forth

But then there is none to consume for our people.

It springs forth, and it is eaten by the heathen nations who surround us.

Father, and when they fall into judgment

When they go forth into the grave

By their own wickedness and stupidity

Father, we, we are the ones who are held accountable.

 

Father, first they make war

And when we don’t draw out our swords

They fall ‘pon rocks

And are dashed to pieces

By their own hands

By their own weapons

By their own lies.

And then they say unto Israel, “Aha! Aha!

“We see! You are the wicked

“And murderous generation!

“We lay forth a curse every so many generations!

“And we change the laws!

“We have you in our trap now!”

 

LORD, had they not seen the previous traps laid against Israel

How it dashed them to pieces?

How their entrails were as bursting forth from them?

LORD, yet they multiply a war against You, and only You.

Their weapons prospered for a little while

Making the dearth of your people very great.

Yet, in the valleys, decision was made

And great was the slaughter at Beth-Hashaida.

Why, then, do they continue to attack?

Why then, do they continue to slaughter your people?

Their own traps sprung on them

And now they multiply even greater war.

Yet, the war shall be turned to the gate.

It has now left Zion.

Say this now, Israel,

“The war has now left Zion.”

Now shall the Assyrian be made war with in his own country.

Now shall they be slaughtered

And now shall they be laid waste.

Yet not by the sword, nor by man’s devices.

Now shall they be held in captivity

And their people mocked and on display

For the whole world to see.

The LORD decreed a destruction against you

And even had you laid down your weapons

The slaughter would be great.

We, the LORD’s people

Would have followed you with our words

And wagged the tongue at you

And watched you flee as dogs

From the prey

When the lions come to tear.

That shall be you,

Yet the lions will want live prey

And they shall follow you to your holes

And they shall rip the enemies of the LORD’s people to pieces.

 

Yet, you continue war.

War with the LORD shall not prosper you

Oh king of Israel.

Pekah, the merciful man has spared you

The merciful man has blessed you.

For one battle, you are enraged

Yet now let Zion tear forth her walls

O Israel, for your people are a great number

Yet they multiply their vanities.

For these vanities, you bring forth and wag the tongue.

Now we shall lay forth the curse on you

And wag our tongues at you.

Assyria has visited the prophets.

Assyria has visited the lame

And the saints.

Now shall go forth the slaughter as at Midian

O Pekah, king of Israel.

Into captivity shall you go

To the nations whom you did not know.

 

Judah shall be set free.

Judah shall be eating in the valleys.

Judah shall feed by the brooks.

Judah, O King of Israel, whom you were at war with.

 

Judah shall confess the curse upon thee

For smiting your brethren

And continually bringing them to shame.

For your curses and your vanities

O Pekah, King of Israel

Shall be your shame.

All your words shall fall on your own head

And depart from the land of Judah.

 

Assyria’s king shall hear of a great rumor

And shall return unto his cities.

The prophet says to you,

 

 

 

Oh Assyrian? Where is the blessing?

Had not even you done so to us?

 

And Pekah will be left bare without you

And he shall be as a heath in a burning woods

Consumed by the fires of his own curses.

He shall be laid low in the valleys of Kidron

As the LORD’s people eat, and Judah rejoices with the wife,

LORD, the wife You have chosen for him.

For Judah shall be called “Israel” wherever a blessing rests.

And Judah shall be called “Judah” wherever a blessing rests.

O! Ephraim, Pekah King of Israel, you shall be called so, and even called Judah

Wherever a curse shall rest.

Therefore, the curse which you smote the LORD’s people with

The one which you found by our laws,

It shall fall on your head, o Northern King.

And the curses shall rest on you

O foolish king.

 

Thus ends the words of the Prophet.