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.