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¹ HEAR this word which I take up concerning you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel:² The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall no more rise; she is left lying on the ground, there is none to raise her up.³ For thus says the LORD God: The city out of which went forth a thousand men, there shall be left in it a hundred men; and that out of which went forth a hundred men, there shall be left in it ten men to the house of Israel.

⁴ For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: Seek me and you shall live;⁵ But do not seek Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Beth-el shall come to nought.⁶ Seek the LORD and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour Beth-el, and there will be none to quench it.⁷ You who turn justice into bitterness, and lower righteousness to the ground,⁸ They have forsaken him who made Pleiades and Orion, and who turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark into night; who calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth; the LORD is his name;⁹ Who makes the weak to rule over the mighty, and exalts the meek over the proud.¹⁰ They hate the poor at the gates, and they abhor him who speaks uprightly.¹¹ Therefore because you have beaten on the head of the poor and have taken from him the choicest gifts; the houses of hewn stone which you have built, you shall not dwell in; and from the pleasant vineyards which you have planted, you shall not drink wine.¹² For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great; you oppress the just, you take a bribe, and you turn aside the cause of 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 you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.¹⁵ Hate the evil and love the good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: In all streets there shall be wailing; and in all broad places they shall say, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmers to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.¹⁷ And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you, says the LORD.¹⁸ Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? The day of the LORD? For it is a day of darkness and not light.¹⁹ As when 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 Such is the day of the LORD; it is darkness and not light; yea, it is a day of thick darkness and no brightness is in it.

²¹ I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell the savor of your solemn assemblies.²² Though you offer me your burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your harps.²⁴ But let justice run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.²⁵ Did you offer to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?²⁶ But you carried the tabernacle of Malcom and Chiun your idol, the star which you made a god to yourselves.²⁷ Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD whose name is the God of hosts.