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.