Death is Imminent

5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you,1 family2 of Israel:

5:2 “The virgin3 Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.

She is abandoned on her own land

with no one to help her get up.”4

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers5 will have only a hundred left;

the town6 that marches out with a hundred soldiers7 will have only ten left for the family of Israel.”8

5:4 The Lord says this to the family9 of Israel:

“Seek me10 so you can live!

5:5 Do not seek Bethel!11

Do not visit Gilgal!

Do not journey down12 to Beer Sheba!

For the people of Gilgal13 will certainly be carried into exile;14

and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”15

5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!

Otherwise he will break out16 like fire against Joseph’s17 family;18

the fire19 will consume

and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.20

5:7 The Israelites21 turn justice into bitterness;22

they throw what is fair and right23 to the ground.24

5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;

he can turn the darkness into morning

and daylight25 into night.

He summons the water of the seas

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name!

5:9 He flashes26 destruction down upon the strong

so that destruction overwhelms27 the fortified places.)

5:10 The Israelites28 hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;29

they despise anyone who speaks honestly.

5:11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops30

and exact a grain tax from them,

you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,

nor will you drink the wine from the fine31 vineyards you planted.32

5:12 Certainly33 I am aware of34 your many rebellious acts35

and your numerous sins.

You36 torment the innocent, you take bribes,

and you deny justice to37 the needy at the city gate.38

5:13 For this reason whoever is smart39 keeps quiet40 in such a time,

for it is an evil41 time.

5:14 Seek good and not evil so you can live!

Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you,

as you claim he is.

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote42 justice at the city gate!43

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on44 those who are left from45 Joseph.46

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins47 this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One,48 says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing,

in all the streets they will mourn the dead.49

They will tell the field workers50 to lament

and the professional mourners51 to wail.

5:17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing,

for I will pass through52 your midst,” says the Lord.