1. Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim proudly adorned, to that fading flower of luxurious beauty on the head of a rich valley - all are dizzy with wine.

2. Look, the Lord is sending a powerful and strong one. Like a downpour of hail, like a destructive tempest, like flooding water in torrential rain, he will cast it down to the ground -

3. that proud ornament of the drunkards of Ephraim. He will trample it underfoot -

4. that fading flower of glorious beauty on the head of a rich valley. It will be like an early fruit which ripened before summer: as soon as someone sees it he picks it, and while it is yet in his hand he eats it.

5. On that day, Yahweh Sabaoth will be a glorious ornament, a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people.

6. He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the enemies at the gate.

7. But they also have erred through wine, reeling and stumbling from strong drink. Priests and prophets stagger, befuddled with wine, reeling when seeing visions, stumbling when rendering decisions.

8. All the tables are full of vomit; there is not a spot without filth.

9. "Who does he think he is teaching? Who does he think listens to him? Babies just weaned from their mother's milk? Babies just taken from their mother's breast?

10. Who cares to hear his 'Keep quiet, keep quiet! Wait a little, wait a little!'

11. Yes, surely with stammering lips and in a strange tongue, he will talk to this nation,

12. he who once said to them, "This is rest, give rest to the weary"; and, "This is repose." But they would not listen.

13. That is why Yahweh now says: Keep quiet, keep quiet! Wait a little, wait a little! So that when they have to go forward, they will instead fall backward; they will be injured and snared and taken captive.

14. Therefore, listen to the word of Yahweh, you scoffers who rule these people of Jerusalem.

15. Because you make a boast, "We have made a covenant with death, we have made a pact with the netherworld. When the flood passes by it cannot harm us, for we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place."

16. Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this: See, I lay in Zion a granite stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation; he who relies on it shall not be put to shame.

17. I will make justice the measure and righteousness the plumb line. Violent hail will sweep away your refuge of lies and raging waters will overflow your hiding place.

18. Your covenant with death will not stand, your pact with the netherworld will be annulled. When the overwhelming flood passes, you will be crushed by it.

19. Morning after morning, by day and by night, the scourge will seize and crush you. If you understood this message, you would be terrified.

20. "The bed will be too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you."

21. Yahweh will arise as on Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to work his work - his singular work; to do his deed - his strange deed.

22. Put an end to your mocking, or your bonds will be tightened, for I have heard the destruction decreed against the whole earth by the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.

23. Listen to my words, pay attention and understand what I say.

24. Does the plowman do nothing but plow, loosen the earth, pulverize the clods with a harrow?

25. After leveling the soil, does he not begin to sow caraway and scatter cumin, wheat and barley and put spelt as the border?

26. For his God instructs him on what to do, he gives him guidance and discretion, too.

27. For caraway is not threshed nor cumin crushed, but caraway is beaten with a stick and cumin with a rod.

28. Is the wheat milled on the threshing floor? Is it threshed without end? They put in movement chariot and horses but do not grind it.

29. All comes from Yahweh Sabaoth whose advice is excellent, whose wisdom is wonderful.





“Se você não entrega seu coração a Deus, o que lhe entrega?” “Você deve seguir outra estrada. Tire de seu coração todas as paixões deste mundo, humilhe-se na poeira e reze! Dessa forma, certamente você encontrará Deus, que lhe dará paz e serenidade nesta vida e a eterna beatitude na próxima.” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina