LAMENTATION FOR ISRAEL

5 Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,w house of Israel:

2 She has fallen;

Virgin Israelx will never rise again.y

She lies abandoned on her land

with no one to raise her up.z

3 For the Lord God says:

The city that marches out a thousand strong

will have only a hundred left,aa

and the one that marches out a hundred strong

will have only ten leftab in the house of Israel.

SEEK GOD AND LIVE

4 For the Lord says to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live!ac

5 Do not seek Bethelad

or go to Gilgalae

or journey to Beer-sheba,af

for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,

and Bethel will come to nothing.

6 Seek the Lordag and live,

or he will spread like fireah

throughout the house of Joseph;

it will consume everything

with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.ai

7 Those who turn justice into wormwoodaj

also throw righteousness to the ground.

8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,ak

who turns darknessB into dawnal

and darkens day into night,am

who summons the water of the seaan

and pours it out over the surface of the earthao—

the Lord is his name.ap

9 He brings destructionC on the strong,D,aq

and it falls on the fortress.ar

10 They hate the one who convicts the guiltyas

at the city gate,

and they despiseat the one who speaks with integrity.

11 Therefore, because you trample on the poorau

and exact a grain tax from him,

you will never live in the houses of cut stoneav

you have built;

you will never drink the wine

from the lush vineyards

you have planted.aw

12 For I know your crimes are many

and your sins innumerable.

They oppress the righteous,a take a bribe,

and deprive the poor of justiceb at the city gates.

13 Therefore, those who have insight will keep silentA,c

at such a time,

for the days are evil.

14 Pursue good and not evil

so that you may live,

and the Lord, the God of Armies,

will be with you

as you have claimed.d

15 Hate evil and love good;e

establish justice at the city gate.f

Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be graciousg

to the remnant of Joseph.h

16 Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;i

they will cry out in anguishB in all the streets.

The farmer will be called on to mourn,j

and professional mournersC,k to wail.

17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards,l

for I will pass among you.m

The Lord has spoken.

THE DAY OF THE LORD

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!n

What will the day of the Lord be for you?

It will be darkness and not light.o

19 It will be like a man who flees from a lionp

only to have a bear confront him.

He goes home and rests his hand against the wall

only to have a snake bite him.

20 Won’t the day of the Lord

be darkness rather than light,q

even gloom without any brightness in it?r

21 I hate, I despise, your feasts!s

I can’t stand the stench

of your solemn assemblies.t

22 Even if you offer me

your burnt offerings and grain offerings,u

I will not accept them;v

I will have no regard

for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.w

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.x

24 But let justice flow like water,

and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.y

25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?z 26 But you have taken upD Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god,* images you have made for yourselves.aa 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.”ab The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.ac He has spoken.

WOE TO THE COMPLACENT

6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zionad

and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—

the notable people in this first of the nations,

those the house of Israel comes to.

2 Cross over to Calnehae and see;

go from there to great Hamath;af

then go down to Gathag of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Is their territory larger than yours?

3 You dismiss any thought of the evil dayah

and bring in a reign of violence.ai

4 They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,aj

sprawled out on their couches,ak

and dine on lambs from the flockal

and calves from the stall.

5 They improvise songsF to the sound of the harpam

and inventG their own musical instruments like David.an

6 They drink wine by the bowlfulao

and anoint themselves with the finest oils

but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.ap

7 Therefore, they will now go into exile

as the first of the captives,aq

and the feastinga of those who sprawl out

will come to an end.

ISRAEL’S PRIDE JUDGED

8 The Lord God has sworn by himselfb—this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Armies:

I loathe Jacob’s pridec

and hate his citadels,d

so I will hand over the citye and everything in it.

9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die.f 10 A close relativeA and burnerB,g will remove his corpseC from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”

That person will reply, “None.”

Then he will say, “Silence, because the Lord’s name must not be invoked.”h

11 For the Lord commands:

The large house will be smashed to pieces,

and the small house to rubble.i

12 Do horses gallop on the cliffs?

Does anyone plow there with oxen?D

Yet you have turned justice into poisonj

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwoodk—

13 you who rejoice over Lo-debarl

and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim

for ourselves by our own strength?”m

14 But look, I am raising up a nation

against you, house of Israeln—

this is the declaration of the Lord,

the God of Armies—

and they will oppress you

from the entrance of HamathE,o

to the Brook of the Arabah.F