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23 Those who acquit the guilty for bribes,
    and deprive the innocent of justice!(A)
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble,
    as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
Their root shall rot
    and their blossom scatter like dust;
For they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts,
    and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 [a]Therefore the wrath of the Lord blazes against his people,
    he stretches out his hand to strike them;
The mountains quake,(B)
    their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets.
For all this, his wrath is not turned back,
    his hand is still outstretched.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:25–30 These verses do not suit their present context. Apparently v. 25 was originally the conclusion of the poem of 9:7–20 directed against the Northern Kingdom; cf. the refrain that occurs here and in 9:11, 16, and 20. Verses 26–30 look to an invasion by Assyria and might originally have come immediately after the poem of 9:1–20 plus 5:25. The insertion of chaps. 6–8 may have occasioned the dislocation, as well as that of 10:1–4a, which may have originally belonged with the “reproach” oracles of 5:8–23.