1. Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:
2. ‘Fallen is Virgin Israel,never to rise again,deserted in her own land,with no one to lift her up.’
3. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:‘Your city that marches out a thousand strongwill have only a hundred left;your town that marches out a hundred strongwill have only ten left.’
4. This is what the Lord says to Israel:‘Seek me and live;
5. do not seek Bethel,do not go to Gilgal,do not journey to Beersheba.For Gilgal will surely go into exile,and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.’
6. Seek the Lord and live,or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;it will devour them,and Bethel will have no one to quench it.
7. There are those who turn justice into bitternessand cast righteousness to the ground.
8. He who made the Pleiades and Orion,who turns midnight into dawnand darkens day into night,who calls for the waters of the seaand pours them out over the face of the land –the Lord is his name.
9. With a blinding flash he destroys the strongholdand brings the fortified city to ruin.
10. There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in courtand detest the one who tells the truth.
11. You levy a straw tax on the poorand impose a tax on their grain.Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,you will not live in them;though you have planted lush vineyards,you will not drink their wine.
12. For I know how many are your offencesand how great your sins.There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribesand deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13. Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,for the times are evil.
14. Seek good, not evil,that you may live.Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,just as you say he is.
15. Hate evil, love good;maintain justice in the courts.Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercyon the remnant of Joseph.
16. Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:‘There will be wailing in all the streetsand cries of anguish in every public square.The farmers will be summoned to weepand the mourners to wail.
17. There will be wailing in all the vineyards,for I will pass through your midst,’says the Lord.
18. Woe to you who longfor the day of the Lord!Why do you long for the day of the Lord?That day will be darkness, not light.
19. It will be as though a man fled from a liononly to meet a bear,as though he entered his houseand rested his hand on the wallonly to have a snake bite him.
20. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light –pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21. ‘I hate, I despise your religious festivals;your assemblies are a stench to me.
22. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them.Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,I will have no regard for them.
23. Away with the noise of your songs!I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24. But let justice roll on like a river,righteousness like a never-failing stream!
25. ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offeringsfor forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
26. You have lifted up the shrine of your king,the pedestal of your idols,the star of your god –which you made for yourselves.
27. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,’says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.