1: Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. 2: The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise! she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. 3: For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth [by] a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. 4: For thus saith the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: 5: But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to naught. 6: Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it], and [there be] none to quench [it] in Beth-el. 7: Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness on the earth, 8: [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shades of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: JEHOVAH [is] his name: 9: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. 10: They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. 11: Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12: For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right]. 13: Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time. 14: Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. 15: Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. 16: Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing. 17: And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. 18: Woe to you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light. 19: As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20: [Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? 21: I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 22: Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept [them]; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 23: Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 24: But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. 25: Have ye offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26: But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. 27: Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.
