1
Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a kinah (lamentation), O Bais Yisroel.
2
The Betulat Yisroel is fallen; she shall no more rise; she is forsaken in her own land; there is none to raise her up.
3
For thus saith Adonoi Hashem: The city that went out by a thousand will be left a hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred will be left ten, for Bais Yisroel.
4
For thus saith Hashem unto Bais Yisroel: Seek ye Me, and live;
5
But seek not Beit-El, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer Sheva; for Gilgal shall surely go into golus, and Beit-El shall come to naught.
6
Seek Hashem, and live; lest He break out like eish in Bais Yosef, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beit-El.
7
Ye who turn mishpat into wormwood, and cast tzedakah to the ground,
8
Seek Him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth tzalmavet into boker, and maketh the yom into lailah; that calleth for the waters of the yam, and poureth them out upon the face of ha’aretz; Hashem Shmo;
9
Who causeth shod (destruction) to flash upon the strong, and shod upon the fortified city.
10
They hate the mochiach (reprover [of injustice]) in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh tamim (uprightly).
11
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat; ye have built batim (houses) of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant kramim (vineyards), but ye shall not drink yayin of them.
12
For I have da’as of your manifold peysha’im and your mighty chattaim (sins); they afflict the tzaddik, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the sha’ar (gate, court) from their right.
13
Therefore the maskil (prudent) shall keep silence in such times; for it is an evil time.
14
Seek tov, and not rah, that ye may live; and so Hashem Elohei Tzva’os shall be with you, just as ye say He is.
15
Hate the rah, and love the tov, and establish mishpat in the sha’ar; it may be that Hashem Elohei Tzava’os will be gracious unto the she’erit Yosef.
16
Therefore Hashem Adonoi Elohei Tzva’os saith thus: Wailing shall be in all rechovot; and they shall cry in all the public squares, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the ikkar (farmer) to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.
17
And in all kramim (vineyards) shall be wailing; for I will pass through thee, saith Hashem.