Third Pronouncement of Punishment

¹Hear this word which I take up as a dirge against you, O house of Israel:[#Jer 7:29; Eze 19:1]

²Fallen, no more to rise

is maiden Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with no one to raise her up.

³For thus says the Lord God :

The city that went out with a thousand

will be left with a hundred,

and the one that went out with a hundred

will be left with ten for the house of Israel.

⁴Indeed, thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

Seek Me and live!

⁵But do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beer-sheba;

for Gilgal will surely go into captivity,

and Bethel shall be no more.

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

or He will break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it will devour Bethel,

with no one to quench it.

⁷You who turn justice into bitterness[#Am 6:12]

and cast righteousness down to the ground!

⁸The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,[#Job 9:9]

who turns the deep darkness into dawn

and darkens the day into night,

who summons the waters of the sea

and pours them out on the surface of the earth—

the Lord is His name,

⁹the One who flashes destruction against the strong,

so that destruction comes against the fortress.

¹⁰They hate the one who prosecutes at the gate,[#Isa 29:21]

and abhor the one who speaks with integrity.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor

and take from him a levy of wheat,

though you have built houses of hewn stone,

you will not dwell in them;

though you have planted pleasant vineyards,

you will not drink their wine.

¹²For I know your transgressions are many

and your sins are grievous,

you who oppress the just,

who take a bribe and subvert the needy at the gate.

¹³Therefore the prudent are silent at such a time,[#Ecc 3:7]

for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil,

so that you may live;

then the Lord , the God of Hosts, will truly be with you,

as you claim.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good,[#Ps 97:10]

and establish justice at the gate.

It may then be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious

to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord , the God of Hosts, the Lord:

Wailing will be in all the squares,

and in all the streets they will say, “Alas! Alas!”

They shall call the farmer to mourning,

and to wailing those skilled in lamentation.

¹⁷In all vineyards there shall be wailing,[#Isa 16:10]

for I will pass through you,

says the Lord .

The Day of the Lord Is Darkness

¹⁸Woe to you that desire

the day of the Lord !

Why do you want the day of the Lord ?

It is darkness, and not light,

¹⁹as if someone fled away from a lion,

but a bear attacked him,

or got into the house

and rested his hand on the wall,

but a snake bit him.

²⁰Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?

Will it not be deep darkness, with no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals,

and I am not pleased by your solemn assemblies.

²²Though you offer Me burnt offerings or your grain offerings,

I will not accept them,

nor will I regard the offerings

of your fattened animals.

²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs;[#Am 8:3]

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll down like water,[#Mic 6:8]

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings

those forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

²⁶But you will carry away Sukuth your king

and Kaiwan your star-images,

your gods that you made for yourselves,

²⁷as I drive you away into exile beyond Damascus,[#2Ki 17:6]

says the Lord , whose name is the God of Hosts.