1Now you shall gather yourself in troops,
daughter of troops.
He has laid siege against us.
They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.
2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
being small among the clans of Judah,
out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.
3Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth.
Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.
4He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh,
in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God:
and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.
10“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh,
“that I will cut off your horses out from among you,
and will destroy your chariots.
11I will cut off the cities of your land,
and will tear down all your strongholds.
12I will destroy witchcraft from your hand;
and you shall have no soothsayers.
13I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out from among you;
and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.
14I will uproot your Asherah poles out from among you;
and I will destroy your cities.
15I will execute vengeance in anger,
and wrath on the nations that didn’t listen.”