A lamentation for Israel -- An exhortation to repentance.

¹⁾Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

²⁾The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise:; she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

³⁾For thus saith the Lord GODGod; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave ana hundred, and that which went forth by ana hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

⁴⁾For thus saith the LORDLord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:.

⁵⁾But seek not BethelBeth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba:Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and BethelBeth-el shall come to noughtnaught.

⁶⁾Seek the LORDLord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in BethelBeth-el.

⁷⁾Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

⁸⁾Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night:; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth:; The LORDLord is his name:.

⁹⁾That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

¹⁰⁾They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

¹¹⁾Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat:; ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

¹²⁾For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins:; they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

¹³⁾Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴⁾Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live:; and so the LORDLord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

¹⁵⁾Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate:; it may be that the LORDLord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶⁾Therefore the LORDLord, the God of hosts, the LORDLord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilfulskillful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷⁾And in all vineyards shall be wailing:; for I will pass through thee, saith the LORDLord.

¹⁸⁾Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORDLord is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹⁾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 serpent bit him.

²⁰⁾Shall not the day of the LORDLord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹⁾I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

²²⁾Though ye offer me burnt offeringsoffering and your meat offerings, I will not accept them:; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

²³⁾Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

²⁴⁾But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

²⁵⁾Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶⁾But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

²⁷⁾Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORDLord, whose name is The God of hosts.