Seek the Lord and Live
1 Hear this word that I
1take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
2
"Fallen, no more to rise, is
2the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up."
3
For thus says the Lord GOD: "The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."
4
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
3"Seek me and live;
5
but do not seek
4Bethel, and do not enter into
5Gilgal or cross over to
6Beersheba; for
7Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and
8Bethel shall come to nothing."
6
9Seek the LORD and live,
10lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for
11Bethel,
7
O
12you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8
He who made the
13Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and
14darkens the day into night, who
15calls for the waters of the sea
16and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
17the LORD is his name;
9
18who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10
19They hate him who reproves
20in the gate, and they
21abhor him who speaks the truth.
11
Therefore because you
22trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him,
23you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them;
24you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
12
For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the righteous, who
25take a bribe, and
26turn aside the needy
27in the gate.
13
Therefore he who is prudent will
28keep silent in such a time,
29for it is an evil time.
14
30Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD,
31the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
15
32Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice
33in the gate;
34it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16
Therefore thus says the LORD,
35the God of hosts, the Lord: "In all the squares
36there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, 'Alas! Alas!' They shall call the farmers to mourning and
37to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
17
and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for
38I will pass through your midst," says the LORD.