✧Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. ✧2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. ✧3For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. ✧4For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: ✧5But seek not 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. ✧6Seek the LORD, 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 Beth-el. ✧7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, ✧8[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 [is] his name: ✧9That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. ✧10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. ✧11Forasmuch therefore as your treading [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. ✧12For 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 [from their right]. ✧13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time. ✧14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. ✧15Hate 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. ✧16Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [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. ✧17And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD. ✧18Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light. ✧19As 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[Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? ✧21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. ✧22Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept [them:] neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. ✧23Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. ✧24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. ✧25Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? ✧26But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. ✧27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.