Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Yisra᾽el.

The virgin of Yisra᾽el is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

For thus says the Lord God; The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left for the house of Yisra᾽el.

For, thus says the Lord to the house of Yisra᾽el, Seek me and you shall live:

but do not seek Bet-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Be᾽er-sheva; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bet-el shall come to nought.

Seek the Lord, and live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Yosef, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bet-el,

O you who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the ground.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deepest darkness into morning, and makes the day darken into night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

who sends forth destruction against the strong, the destruction that comes against the fortress.

They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.

Therefore, since you trample upon the poor, and take from him exactions 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.

For I know your many transgressions and your mighty sins: you that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and turn aside the poor at the gate.

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

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

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Yosef.

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, says thus; Lamentation shall there be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and to wailing such as are skilful in lamentation.

And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, says the Lord.

Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! why would you have this day of the Lord; it is darkness, and not light.

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 snake bit him.

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

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell the sacrifices of your solemn assemblies.

Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Take away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy lutes.

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Yisra᾽el?

But you shall carry Sikkut your king, and Kiyyun, your images, the star image of your God which you made for yourselves,

and I will cause you to go into exile beyond Dammeseq, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.