‘A dirge, house of Israel:
² Fallen is Israel the virgin—never to rise again!
    She is abandoned on her own land,
        with no one to raise her up.’

³ “For this is what the Lord God says:

‘The city that is sending out a thousand
    will have a hundred left;
The city^[b] that is sending out a hundred
    will have ten left of the house of Israel.’”

‘Seek me and live,
⁵ but don’t seek Bethel.
Don’t go to Gilgal,
        and don’t pass over to Beer-sheba.
Because Gilgal will surely go into captivity,^[c]
    and Bethel will come to nothing.

⁶ ‘Seek the Lord and live!
    Otherwise, he may break out like a fire in the house of Joseph
        and devour Bethel,^[d]
    and there will be no one to extinguish it.
⁷ Those of you who are making justice taste bitter,^[e]
    and who have thrown righteousness to the ground:
⁸ Seek^[f] the one who fashions the Pleiades and Orion,
    who turns the deep darkness^[g] into morning,
    who darkens day into night,
    who calls out to the waters of the sea,
        pouring them out onto the surface of the earth—
    the Lord is his name.
⁹ It is he who is raining sudden destruction
    upon the strong like lightning,^[h]
        so that ruin comes upon the fortress.
¹⁰ They have hated those who are presenting their cases in court,^[i]
    detesting the one who speaks truthfully.

¹¹ ‘Therefore, since you trample the poor continuously,
    taxing his grain,
    building houses of stone in which you won’t live
    and planting fine vineyards from which you won’t drink—
¹² and because I know that your transgressions are many,
    and your sins are numerous
as you oppose the righteous,
    taking bribes as a ransom,
        and turning away the poor in court^[j]—
¹³ therefore the prudent person remains silent at such a time,
    for the time is evil.

¹⁴ ‘Pursue good and not evil,
    so that you may live,
and this is what will happen:^[k]
    The Lord God of the Heavenly Armies will be with you,
        as you have been claiming.
¹⁵ Hate evil and love good,
    and establish justice in court—^[l]
perhaps the Lord, the God of the Heavenly Armies,
will be gracious to the survivors of Joseph.’”

¹⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of the Heavenly Armies, the Lord, says:

‘There will be dirges in all of the streets;
        and in all of the highways they will cry out in anguish.^[m]
They will call the farmer to mourning
    and those who lament^[n] to grieve.
¹⁷ And in all of the vineyards there will be mourning
    when I pass through your midst,’
        says the Lord.”

²⁴ “But let justice roll on like many^[s] waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing river.

²⁵ “Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts
    in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel?
²⁶ And you carried the tent of your king^[t]—
    and Saturn,^[u] your star god idols^[v] that you crafted for yourselves.
²⁷ So I will cause you to be taken captive beyond Damascus,”
    says the Lord,
        whose name is God of the Heavenly Armies.