¹Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

• ²“The virgin of Israel has fallen;
• She shall rise no more.

• She is cast down on her land;
• there is no one to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord Yahweh:

• “The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left,
• and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel:

• “Seek me, and you will live;

• ⁵but don’t seek Bethel,
• nor enter into Gilgal,
• and don’t pass to Beersheba:

• for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
• and Bethel shall come to nothing.

• ⁶Seek Yahweh, and you will live;
• lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
• and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

• ⁷You who turn justice to wormwood,
• and cast down righteousness to the earth:

• ⁸seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion,
• and turns the shadow of death into the morning,
• and makes the day dark with night;
• who calls for the waters of the sea,
• and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,

• ⁹who brings sudden destruction on the strong,
• so that destruction comes on the fortress.

• ¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,
• and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

• ¹¹Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor,
• and take taxes from him of wheat:
• You have built houses of cut stone,
• but you will not dwell in them.

• You have planted pleasant vineyards,
• but you shall not drink their wine.

• ¹²For I know how many your offenses,
• and how great are your sins—
• you who afflict the just,
• who take a bribe,
• and who turn aside the needy in the courts.

• ¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time,
• for it is an evil time.

• ¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,
• that you may live;
• and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you,
• as you say.

• ¹⁵Hate evil, love good,
• and establish justice in the courts.
• It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

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

• “Wailing will be in all the broad ways;
• and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’
• and they will call the farmer to mourning,
• and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

• ¹⁷In all vineyards there will be wailing;
• for I will pass through the midst of you,” says Yahweh.

• ¹⁸“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh!
• Why do you long for the day of Yahweh?

• It is darkness,
• and not light.

• ¹⁹As if a man fled from a lion,
• and a bear met him;

• Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall,
• and a snake bit him.

• ²⁰Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light?
• Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

• ²¹I hate, I despise your feasts,
• and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

• ²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings,
• I will not accept them;
• neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

• ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs!
• I will not listen to the music of your harps.

• ²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers,
• and righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. ²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.