⁴ They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

¹² Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, And the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

⁷ You who turn justice to wormwood, And cast down righteousness to the earth:

² There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; They break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

¹³ and he took of the seed royal, and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land;

¹⁴ that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.

¹⁵ But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape who does such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?

¹⁶ As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

¹⁷ Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many persons.

¹⁸ For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape.

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely my oath that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head.

³ Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.

⁴ The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters.

¹¹ The name of the star is called "Wormwood." One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹⁵ looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled;

³ without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good,

³¹ without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;

²³ For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity."

⁷ But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

¹³ transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴ Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

¹⁵ Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him who there was no justice.

⁷ For the vineyard of Yahweh of Hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah his pleasant plant: And he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; For righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

¹⁸ lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;