The LORD says, "I will stir up civil war in Egypt and turn brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. Rival cities will fight each other, and rival kings will struggle for power.

The LORD has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them.

So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

"You felt sure of yourself in your evil; you thought that no one could see you. Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray, and you said to yourself, 'I am God--- there is no one else like me.'

Disaster will come upon you, and none of your magic can stop it. Ruin will come on you suddenly--- ruin you never dreamed of !

The LORD asked, 'Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?' Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else,

'How?' the LORD asked. The spirit replied, 'I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.' The LORD said, 'Go and deceive him. You will succeed.' "

God is strong and always victorious; both deceived and deceiver are in his power.

"Whenever one of you Israelites or one of you foreigners who live in the Israelite community turn away from me and worship idols, and then go to consult a prophet, I, the LORD, will give you your answer!

"If any prophets are deceived into giving a false answer, it is because I, the LORD, have deceived them. I will remove them from the people of Israel.

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop!

they grope in the dark and stagger like drunkards.

The LORD, the God of Israel, said to me, "Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it.

When they drink from it, they will stagger and go out of their minds because of the war I am sending against them."

Then the LORD said to me, "Tell the people that I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them.

The LORD said, "Make Moab drunk, because it has rebelled against me. Moab will roll in its own vomit, and people will laugh.