4-5. God’s Message to the family of Israel:“Seek me and live.Don’t fool around at those shrines of Bethel,Don’t waste time taking trips to Gilgal,and don’t bother going down to Beer-sheba.Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrowand Bethel is all show, no substance.”
6. So seek God and live! You don’t want to end upwith nothing to show for your lifeBut a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.For God will send just such a fire,and the firefighters will show up too late.
7-9. Woe to you who turn justice to vinegarand stomp righteousness into the mud.Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmosstar-flung with constellations by God,A world God wakes up each morningand puts to bed each night.God dips water from the oceanand gives the land a drink.God, God-revealed, does all this.And he can destroy it as easily as make it.He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.
10-12. People hate this kind of talk.Raw truth is never popular.But here it is, bluntly spoken:Because you run roughshod over the poorand take the bread right out of their mouths,You’re never going to move intothe luxury homes you have built.You’re never going to drink winefrom the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.I know precisely the extent of your violations,the enormity of your sins. Appalling!You bully right-living people,taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.
13. Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.Decent people throw up their hands.Protest and rebuke are useless,a waste of breath.
14. Seek good and not evil—and live!You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,being your best friend.Well, live like it,and maybe it will happen.
15. Hate evil and love good,then work it out in the public square.Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,will notice your remnant and be gracious.