¹Hear this word that I am lifting up over you — a dirge, house of Israel.

²She is fallen, she will not rise again, the virgin of Israel; she is let fall on her ground, there is none to raise her up.

³For thus says the Adonai Yahweh: The city that goes out with a thousand will be left with a hundred, and the one that goes out with a hundred will be left with ten, for the house of Israel.

⁴For this is what Yahweh said to the house of Israel: Seek me and live.

⁵Do not seek Bethel, and do not come to Gilgal, and do not cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will become trouble.

⁶Seek Yahweh and live, lest he push forward through the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour, with no one to quench it for Bethel.

⁷Those who turn justice into wormwood, and set righteousness down on the land.

⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep shadow into morning and darkens day into night, who calls to the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land — Yahweh is his name.

⁹The one who flashes destruction upon the strong, and destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks what is sound.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take from him a portion of grain: you built houses of hewn stone, but you will not dwell in them; you planted vineyards of delight, but you will not drink their wine.

¹²For I know your transgressions are many, and your sins are mighty — you who press hard on the righteous, who take a ransom, and turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent one will keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Inquire good and not evil, for the sake that you live; and let there be so Yahweh the God of the hosts with you, as you said.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good, and set in the gate justice; if not, Yahweh the God of the hosts will show favor to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh, God of armies, the Lord: In all the broad places there will be wailing, and in all the streets they will say, “Alas! Alas!” They will call the farmer to mourning, and those skilled in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, Yahweh has said.

¹⁸Woe to those who long for the day of Yahweh! What is this to you? The day of Yahweh, it is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹It is as when a man flees before the lion, and the bear meets him; or he goes into the house and leans his hand on the wall, and the snake bites him.

²⁰Is not the day of Yahweh darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I reject your festivals, and I will not savor the smell of your assemblies.

²²Even if you offer up burnt offerings to me, and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals I will not look at.

²³Remove from me the roar of your songs; I will not listen to the music of your lyres.

²⁴And let justice roll on like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing wadi.

²⁵Did you bring near to me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel?

²⁶And you will carry Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun your images, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves.

²⁷So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says Yahweh, the God of armies is his name.