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this word that I take up against you, this lament, O house of Israel:
2 “Fallen is Virgin Israel,
no more to rise.
She lies abandoned in her own land,
with no one to lift her up.”
3 This is what the Lord God says:
“The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left.”
4 This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
“Seek Me and live;
5do not seek Bethel,
do not go to Gilgal,
do not journey to Beer-sheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.”
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or He will break out on the house of Joseph like a fire;
it will devour everything,
and Bethel will have no one able to quench it.
7 You who turn justice into wormwood
and throw righteousness to the earth.
8 He made the Pleiades and Orion;
He turns darkness into dawn
and darkens day into night;
He summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the earth—
the Lord is His name.
9 He brings destruction on the strong,
so that ruin falls upon the fortress.
10 They hate the one who reproves at the city gate,
and despise the one who speaks uprightly.
11 You trample on the poor
and tax him levies of grain
Therefore, though you have built mansions of cut stone,
you will never live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will never drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes;
you deprive the poor of justice at the city gates.
13 Therefore the prudent keep silent in such a time,
for the days are evil.
14 Seek good and not evil,
that you may live.
Then the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you,
just as you have claimed.
15 Hate evil and love good;
establish justice at the city gates.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:
“There will be wailing in all the public squares,
and in all streets they will say, ‘Alas! alas!’
The farmers will be called on to mourn,
and the paid lamenters to wail.
17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing,
for I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.
18 Woe to you who long
for the Day of the Lord!
Why do you want the Day of the Lord to come?
That day will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion,
and was met by a bear;
or as though he went home
and rested his hand on the wall,
and a snake bit him.
20 Will not be Day of the Lord be darkness, not light;
and gloom without any brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and of your fellowship offerings of choice animals
I will have no regard.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice flow down like the waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!
25 “Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings
in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 But you have lifted up Sakkuth your king
and Kaiwan your star god—
images you have made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”
says the Lord, whose name is The God of Hosts.