A Lament for Israel

5 Hear this word which I atake up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 The virgin of Israel has fallen;

She will rise no more.

She lies forsaken on her land;

There is no one to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that goes out by a thousand

Shall have a hundred left,

And that which goes out by a hundred

Shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

A Call to Repentance

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

b“Seek Me cand live;

5 But do not seek dBethel,

Nor enter Gilgal,

Nor pass over to eBeersheba;

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,

And fBethel shall come to nothing.

6 gSeek the Lord and live,

Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

And devour it,

With no one to quench it in Bethel—

7 You who hturn justice to wormwood,

And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”

8 He made the iPleiades and Orion;

He turns the shadow of death into morning

jAnd makes the day dark as night;

He kcalls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the face of the earth;

lThe Lord is His name.

9 He 1rains ruin upon the strong,

So that fury comes upon the fortress.

10 mThey hate the one who rebukes in the gate,

And they nabhor the one who speaks uprightly.

11 oTherefore, because you 2tread down the poor

And take grain 3taxes from him,

Though pyou have built houses of hewn stone,

Yet you shall not dwell in them;

You have planted 4pleasant vineyards,

But you shall not drink wine from them.

12 For I qknow your manifold transgressions

And your mighty sins:

rAfflicting the just and taking bribes;

sDiverting the poor from justice at the gate.

13 Therefore tthe prudent keep silent at that time,

For it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil,

That you may live;

So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,

uAs you have spoken.

15 vHate evil, love good;

Establish justice in the gate.

wIt may be that the Lord God of hosts

Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

The Day of the Lord

16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, says this:

“There shall be wailing in all streets,

And they shall say in all the highways,

‘Alas! Alas!’

They shall call the farmer to mourning,

xAnd skillful lamenters to wailing.

17 In all vineyards there shall be wailing,

For yI will pass through you,”

Says the Lord.

18 zWoe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

For what good is athe day of the Lord to you?

It will be darkness, and not light.

19 It will be bas though a man fled from a lion,

And a bear met him!

Or as though he went into the house,

Leaned his hand on the wall,

And a serpent bit him!

20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?

Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

21 “I chate, I despise your feast days,

And dI do not savor your sacred assemblies.

22 eThough you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,

I will not accept them,

Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs,

For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

24 fBut let justice run down like water,

And righteousness like a mighty stream.

25 “Did gyou offer Me sacrifices and offerings

In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

26 You also carried 5Sikkuth 6 hyour king

And 6Chiun, your idols,

The star of your gods,

Which you made for yourselves.

27 Therefore I will send you into captivity ibeyond Damascus,”

Says the Lord, jwhose name is the God of hosts.