³For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which came forth a thousand, there shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel.

⁴For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live.

⁵But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgal, neither shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall be unprofitable.

⁶Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be burnt with fire, and it shall devour, and there shall be none to quench Bethel.

⁷You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land,

⁸Seek him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into night: that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.

⁹He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the strong, and waste upon the mighty.

¹⁰They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and have abhorred him that speaketh perfectly.

¹¹Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.

¹²Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

¹⁷And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

²⁰Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies.

²²And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

²³Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.

²⁴But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.

²⁵Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

²⁷And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the God of hosts is his name.

Chapter 6

Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the people, that go in with state into the house of Israel.

²Pass ye over to Chalane, and see, and go from thence into Emath the great: and go down into Geth of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these: if their border be larger than your border.

³You that are separated unto the evil day: and that approach to the throne of iniquity;

⁴You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton on your couches: that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the herd;

⁵You that sing to the sound of the psaltery: they have thought themselves to have instruments of music like David;

⁶That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments: and they are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.

⁷Wherefore now they shall go captive at the head of them that go into captivity: and the faction of the luxurious ones shall be taken away.

⁸The Lord God hath sworn by his own soul, saith the Lord the God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with the inhabitants thereof.

⁹And if there remain ten men in one house, they also shall die.

¹¹And a man’s kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, that he may carry the bones out of the house; and he shall say to him that is in the inner rooms of the house: Is there yet any with thee? And he shall answer: There is an end. And he shall say to him: Hold thy peace, and mention not the name of the Lord.

¹²For behold the Lord hath commanded, and he will strike the greater house with breaches, and the lesser house with clefts.

¹³Can horses run upon the rocks, or can any one plough with buffles? for you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood.

¹⁴You that rejoice in a thing of nought: you that say: Have we not taken unto us horns by our own strength?

¹⁵But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall destroy you from the entrance of Emath, even to the torrent of the desert.

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