8. It is the lord who created the stars,the Pleiades and Orion.He turns darkness into morningand day into night.He draws up water from the oceansand pours it down as rain on the land.The lord is his name!
9. With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,crushing all their defenses.
10. How you hate honest judges!How you despise people who tell the truth!
11. You trample the poor,stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,you will never live in them.Though you plant lush vineyards,you will never drink wine from them.
12. For I know the vast number of your sinsand the depth of your rebellions.You oppress good people by taking bribesand deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13. So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,for it is an evil time.
14. Do what is good and run from evilso that you may live!Then the lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,just as you have claimed.
15. Hate evil and love what is good;turn your courts into true halls of justice.Perhaps even yet the lord God of Heaven’s Armieswill have mercy on the remnant of his people.
16. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:“There will be crying in all the public squaresand mourning in every street.Call for the farmers to weep with you,and summon professional mourners to wail.
17. There will be wailing in every vineyard,for I will destroy them all,”says the lord.
18. What sorrow awaits you who say,“If only the day of the lord were here!”You have no idea what you are wishing for.That day will bring darkness, not light.
19. In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear.Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake.
20. Yes, the day of the lord will be dark and hopeless,without a ray of joy or hope.
21. “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.