The house of Israel has fallen and will not rise again, and the people are warned to seek the Lord and live, rather than continuing in their sinful ways. The Lord condemns their corruption and injustice, and warns that He will bring destruction upon them if they do not change. The people are told to hate evil and love good, and to establish justice, but instead they eagerly await the day of the Lord, which will actually be a day of darkness and gloom. The Lord rejects their worship and sacrifices, and warns that He will send them into captivity.
1 Listen to this word, which I lift over you in lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, and it will no longer rise again 2 The virgin of Israel has been thrown onto her land, there is no one who can raise her up 3 For thus says the Lord God: In the city from which a thousand departed, a hundred will remain, and in that from which a hundred departed, ten will remain, in the house of Israel 4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and you will live 5 But do not be willing to seek Bethel, and do not be willing to enter Gilgal, and you will not cross into Beer-sheba. For Gilgal will be led into captivity, and Bethel will be useless 6 Seek the Lord and live. Otherwise, the house of Joseph may be destroyed with fire, and it will devour, and there will be no one who can extinguish Bethel 7 You turn judgment into wormwood, and you abandon justice on earth 8 The Maker of Arcturus and Orion, who turns darkness into daybreak and who changes day into night; who calls forth the waters of the sea and who pours them out over the face of the earth: The Lord is his name 9 It is he who smiles destruction on the healthy, and who brings pillaging upon the powerful 10 They held hatred for the one who corrects at the gate, and they have abhorred the one who speaks perfectly 11 Therefore, on his behalf, because you have torn apart the poor and stolen choice prey from him: you will build houses with square stones and you will not dwell in them; you will plant the most delightful vineyards, and you will not drink wine from them 12 For I know your many wicked deeds and the strength of your sins, you enemies of the just, accepting bribes, and depriving the poor at the gate 13 Therefore, the prudent will be silent at that time, for it is an evil time 14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live. And the Lord God of hosts will be with you, just as you have asked 15 Hate evil and love good, and establish judgment at the gate. Perhaps then the Lord God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph 16 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Sovereign: In all the streets, there will be wailing. And in every place where they are outdoors, they will say, "Woe, woe!" And they will call the farmer to mourn, and those who know mourning to lamentation 17 And in all the vineyards there will be wailing. For I will cross through your midst, says the Lord 18 Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. What is it to you? The day of the Lord is this: darkness and not light 19 It is as if a man flees from the face of a lion, only to have a bear meet him; or, he enters a house and leans with his hand against the wall, only to have a snake bite him 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it 21 I hate and have rejected your feasts; and I will not accept the odor from your gatherings 22 For if you offer me holocausts and your gifts, I will not receive them; and I will not look upon the vows of your fatness 23 Take away from me the tumult of your songs, and I will not listen to the canticles of your lyre 24 And judgment will be revealed like water, and justice like a mighty torrent 25 Was it you who offered victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, house of Israel 26 And you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch and the image of your idols: the star of your god, which you made for yourselves 27 And I will cause you to go into captivity across Damascus, says the Lord. The God of hosts is his name