A Lament and Call to Repentance
1 Hear this word that I [am] going to intone over you [as] a lament, O house of Israel!
2
Virgin Israel has fallen and will not rise again. She is deserted on her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3
For thus says my Lord Yahweh, "The city that marches out [with] a thousand will [only] have a hundred left. And the one that marches out [with] a hundred will [only] have ten left for the house of Israel."
4
For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel, "Seek me so that you may live."
5
But do not seek Bethel or go [to] Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile and Bethel will come to disaster."
6
Seek Yahweh so that you may live, so that he will not break out like a fire [against] the house of Joseph! And it will devour, {with none to quench} [it] for Bethel.
7
[Ah,] you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground!
8
The one who made the Pleiades and Orion and who turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens day [into] night, the one who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh [is] his name!
9
The one who makes destruction flash upon [the] fierce, {so that} destruction comes upon [the] fortification.
10
They hate the one who reproves in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks honestly.
11
Therefore, because you trample on [the] poor and you take a grain tax from them, you built houses of dressed stone, but you will not live in them. You built vineyards of delightfulness, but you will not drink their wine.
12
For I know your transgressions [are] many and your sins [are] numerous, [you] foes of [the] righteous, those who take a bribe, and {those who} push aside [the] poor [ones] in the gate!
13
Therefore, whoever has insight will keep silent in that time, for it [is] a time of evil.
14
Seek good and not bad in order that you may live, and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
15
Hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate; perhaps Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious [to] the remnant of Joseph.
16
Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, my Lord, "In all [of] the public squares [there will be] wailing, and in all [of] the streets [they will say], 'Alas, alas, alas!' They shall call [the] farmers to mourning and [to] wailing, to those who are skilled [in] lamentation.
17
And in all [of the] vineyards [there will be] wailing, because I will pass in your midst," says Yahweh.