A Lament for Israel

1Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken on her land; there is none to raise her up.

3For thus said the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

A Call to Repentance

(Joel 1:13-20; Zephaniah 2:1-3; Luke 13:1-5)

4For thus said the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and you shall live:

5But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

6Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

7You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8Seek 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:

9That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.

11For as much 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 shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.

12For 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.

13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.

15Hate 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.

The Coming Judgment

16Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, said thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, said the LORD.

18Woe 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.

19As 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.

20Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

22Though 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.

23Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.

24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

25Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. 27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, said the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.