Read the Bible

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

² The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more arise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, for the house of Israel.

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

⁵ And seek not Bethel, neither go to Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

⁶ Seek Jehovah, 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 Bethel.

⁷ Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,

⁸ [seek him] that made the Pleiades 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: Jehovah is his name.

⁹ He causeth destruction to break forth suddenly upon the strong, and bringeth destruction upon the fortress.

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

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

¹² For I know how manifold are your transgressions and your sins mighty: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside [the right of] the needy in the gate.

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

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye say.

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

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all broadways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! To what end is the day of Jehovah for you? It shall be darkness and not light:

¹⁹ as if a man fled 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 Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell [a sweet odour] in your solemn assemblies.

²² For if ye offer up unto me burnt-offerings and your oblations, I will not accept [them]; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatted beasts.

²³ Take away from me the noise of thy songs, and I will not hear the melody of thy lutes;

²⁴ but let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵ Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and oblations in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶ Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of your Moloch, and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye had made to yourselves;

²⁷ and I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah, whose name is the God of hosts.