| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing: | 1Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel: |
| 2“The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.” | 2"The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up." |
| 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.” | 3The sovereign LORD says this: "The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel." |
| 4Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live! | 4The LORD says this to the family of Israel: "Seek me so you can live! |
| 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.” | 5Do not seek Bethel! Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds." |
| 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. | 6Seek the LORD so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph's family; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. |
| 7You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. | 7The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground. |
| 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! | 8(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth's surface. The LORD is his name! |
| 9With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses. | 9He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.) |
| 10How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! | 10The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly. |
| 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. | 11Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted. |
| 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. | 12Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate. |
| 13So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time. | 13For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time. |
| 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. | 14Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the LORD, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is. |
| 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. | 15Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote justice at the city gate! Maybe the LORD, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph. |
| 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. | 16Because of Israel's sins this is what the LORD, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says: "In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. |
| 17There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will destroy them all,” says the LORD. Warning of Coming Judgment | 17In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. |
| 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. | 18Woe to those who wish for the day of the LORD! Why do you want the LORD's day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light. |
| 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. | 19Disaster will be inescapable, as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake. |
| 20Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. | 20Don't you realize the LORD's day of judgment will bring darkness, not light--gloomy blackness, not bright light? |
| 21“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. | 21"I absolutely despise your festivals! I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies! |
| 22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. | 22Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. |
| 23Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. | 23Take away from me your noisy songs; I don't want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. |
| 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. | 24Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up. |
| 25“Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? | 25You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel. |
| 26No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. | 26You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves, |
| 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. | 27and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD. He is called the God who commands armies! |
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