9(If there are ten men left in one house, they will all die. 10And when a relative who is responsible to dispose of the dead^d goes into the house to carry out the bodies, he will ask the last survivor, “Is anyone else with you?” When the person begins to swear, “No, by . . .,” he will interrupt and say, “Stop! Don’t even mention the name of the Lord.”)

11When the Lord gives the command,

homes both great and small will be smashed to pieces.

12Can horses gallop over boulders?

Can oxen be used to plow them?

But that’s how foolish you are when you turn justice into poison

and the sweet fruit of righteousness into bitterness.

13And you brag about your conquest of Lo-debar.^e

You boast, “Didn’t we take Karnaim^f by our own strength?”

14“O people of Israel, I am about to bring an enemy nation against you,”

says the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.

“They will oppress you throughout your land—

from Lebo-hamath in the north

to the Arabah Valley in the south.”