⁴ The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is `worse' than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity.

⁵ For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.

⁶ And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

⁶ But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with the hand;

⁷ But the man that toucheth them Must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear: And they shall be utterly burned with fire in `their' place.

³ And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁸ but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.

²⁵ And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows;

¹⁰ For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble.

² And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said Jehovah unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

⁷ The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

⁸ Ephraim `was' a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, `and' enmity in the house of his God.

²³ Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every vision.

²⁴ For there shall be no more any false vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

¹⁵ They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹² Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah.

¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.