| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1"Hear this accusation that I am bringing against you: 'A dirge, house of Israel: | 1Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing: |
| 2Fallen is Israel the virgin—never to rise again! She is abandoned on her own land, with no one to raise her up.' | 2“The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.” |
| 3"For this is what the Lord GOD says: 'The city that is sending out a thousand will have a hundred left; The city that is sending out a hundred will have ten left of the house of Israel.'" | 3The Sovereign LORD says: “When a city sends a thousand men to battle, only a hundred will return. When a town sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive.” |
| 4"For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: 'Seek me and live, | 4Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live! |
| 5but don't seek Bethel. Don't go to Gilgal, and don't pass over to Beer-sheba. Because Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Bethel will come to nothing. | 5Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel; don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” |
| 6Seek the LORD and live! Otherwise, he may break out like a fire in the house of Joseph and devour Bethel, and there will be no one to extinguish it. | 6Come back to the LORD and live! Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames. |
| 7Those of you who are making justice taste bitter, and who have thrown righteousness to the ground: | 7You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. |
| 8Seek the one who fashions the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the deep darkness into morning, who darkens day into night, who calls out to the waters of the sea, pouring them out onto the surface of the earth— the LORD is his name. | 8It is the LORD who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name! |
| 9It is he who is raining sudden destruction upon the strong like lightning, so that ruin comes upon the fortress. | 9With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses. |
| 10They have hated those who are presenting their cases in court, detesting the one who speaks truthfully. | 10How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! |
| 11Therefore, since you trample the poor continuously, taxing his grain, building houses of stone in which you won't live and planting fine vineyards from which you won't drink— | 11You 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. |
| 12and because I know that your transgressions are many, and your sins are numerous as you oppose the righteous, taking bribes as a ransom, and turning away the poor in court — | 12For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. |
| 13therefore the prudent person remains silent at such a time, for the time is evil. | 13So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time. |
| 14Pursue good and not evil, so that you may live, and this is what will happen: The LORD God of the Heavenly Armies will be with you, as you have been claiming. | 14Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. |
| 15Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in court— perhaps the LORD, the God of the Heavenly Armies, will be gracious to the survivors of Joseph.'" | 15Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people. |
| 16Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of the Heavenly Armies, the Lord, says: 'There will be dirges in all of the streets; and in all of the highways they will cry out in anguish. They will call the farmer to mourning and those who lament to grieve. | 16Therefore, this is what the Lord, the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, says: “There will be crying in all the public squares and mourning in every street. Call for the farmers to weep with you, and summon professional mourners to wail. |
| 17And in all of the vineyards there will be mourning when I pass through your midst,' says the LORD." | 17There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will destroy them all,” says the LORD. Warning of Coming Judgment |
| 18"Woe to those who are craving the Day of the LORD! How is it to your benefit, this Day of the LORD? It's a day of darkness to you, and not light. | 18What 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. |
| 19It will be like a man who runs from a lion, only to encounter a bear; or who comes home, leans his hand against a wall, and a serpent bites him! | 19In 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. |
| 20Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness, and not light— pitch black at that, without a ray of sunshine?" | 20Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. |
| 21"I hate—I despise—your festival days, and your solemn convocations stink. | 21“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. |
| 22And if you send up burnt offerings to me as well as your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I consider your peace offerings of fattened cattle. | 22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. |
| 23Spare me your noisy singing— I will not listen to your musical instruments. | 23Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. |
| 24"But let justice roll on like many waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing river. | 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. |
| 25"Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel? | 25“Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? |
| 26And you carried the tent of your king — and Saturn, your star god idols that you crafted for yourselves. | 26No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. |
| 27So I will cause you to be taken captive beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God of the Heavenly Armies. | 27So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus, ” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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