1. Hear ye this word which I take up against you, {cf15I 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; {cf15I there is} none to raise her up.
3. For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out {cf15I by} a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth {cf15I by} an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
4. For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6. Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour {cf15I it}, and {cf15I there be} none to quench {cf15I it} in Bethel.
7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8. {cf15I 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 LORD {cf15I 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 {cf15I 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 {cf15I from their right}.
13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it {cf15I is} an evil time.
14. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, 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 LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16. Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing {cf15I 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 skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17. And in all vineyards {cf15I shall be} wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end {cf15I is} it for you? the day of the LORD {cf15I 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. {cf15I Shall} not the day of the LORD {cf15I 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 offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept {cf15I 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 LORD, whose name {cf15I is} The God of hosts.