¹ Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. ² The virgin of Israel is fallen she will no more rise: she is abandoned on her land there is none to raise her up. ³ For so says the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand will leave a hundred, and that which went forward by a hundred will leave ten, to the house of Israel. ⁴ For so says the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you will live ⁵ But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Bethel will come to nothing. ⁶ Seek the LORD, and you will live; in case he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. ⁷ You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, ⁸ seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth: The LORD is his name ⁹ That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled will come against the fortress. ¹⁰ They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. ¹¹ Since therefore as your treading is on the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you will not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you will not drink wine of them. ¹² For I know your many 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 will keep silence in that time for it is an evil time. ¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you 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, says So; Wailing will be in all streets; and they will say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they will call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. ¹⁷ And in all vineyards will be wailing: for I will pass through you, says 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 did flee 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 will 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 you 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 you away from me the noise of your songs for I will not hear the melody of your viols. ²⁴ But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. ²⁵ Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? ²⁶ But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. ²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.