Lamentation for Israel

1Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament,a house of Israel:

2She has fallen;

Virgin Israela will never rise again.b

She lies abandoned on her land

with no one to raise her up.c

3For the Lord God says:

The city that marches out a thousand strong

will have only a hundred left,a

and the one that marches out a hundred strong

will have only ten leftb in the house of Israel.

Seek God and Live

4For the Lord says to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live!a

5Do not seek Bethela

or go to Gilgalb

or journey to Beer-sheba,c

for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,

and Bethel will come to nothing.

6Seek the Lorda and live,

or he will spread like fireb

throughout the house of Joseph;

it will consume everything

with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.c

7Those who turn justice into wormwooda

also throw righteousness to the ground.

8The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,a

who turns darknessA into dawnb

and darkens day into night,c

who summons the water of the sead

and pours it out over the surface of the earthe —

the Lord is his name.f

9He brings destructionA on the strong,B a

and it falls on the fortress.b

10They hate the one who convicts the guiltya

at the city gate,

and they despiseb the one who speaks with integrity.

11Therefore, because you trample on the poora

and exact a grain tax from him,

you will never live in the houses of cut stoneb

you have built;

you will never drink the wine

from the lush vineyards

you have planted.c

12For I know your crimes are many

and your sins innumerable.

They oppress the righteous,a take a bribe,

and deprive the poor of justiceb at the city gates.

13Therefore, those who have insight will keep silenta a

at such a time,

for the days are evil.

14Pursue good and not evil

so that you may live,

and the Lord, the God of Armies,

will be with you

as you have claimed.a

15Hate evil and love good;a

establish justice at the city gate.b

Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be graciousc

to the remnant of Joseph.d

16Therefore the Lord, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:

There will be wailing in all the public squares;a

they will cry out in anguishA in all the streets.

The farmer will be called on to mourn,b

and professional mournersB c to wail.

17There will be wailing in all the vineyards,a

for I will pass among you.b

The Lord has spoken.

The Day of the Lord

18Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord!a

What will the day of the Lord be for you?

It will be darkness and not light.b

19It will be like a man who flees from a liona

only to have a bear confront him.

He goes home and rests his hand against the wall

only to have a snake bite him.

20Won’t the day of the Lord

be darkness rather than light,a

even gloom without any brightness in it?b

21I hate, I despise, your feasts!a

I can’t stand the stench

of your solemn assemblies.b

22Even if you offer me

your burnt offerings and grain offerings,a

I will not accept them;b

I will have no regard

for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.c

23Take away from me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.a

24But let justice flow like water,

and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.a

25“House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?a 26But you have taken upA Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god,B images you have made for yourselves.a 27So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.”a The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.b He has spoken.