² The people of Israel have fallen,
    never to rise again.
    They lie abandoned in their own land.
    There is no one to help them.

The city that sends 1,000 troops off to war
    will have only 100 left.
    The one that sends 100 troops off to war
    will have only 10 left for the nation of Israel.

Search for me and live!
⁵ But don’t search for me at Bethel.
    Don’t go to Gilgal.
        Don’t travel to Beersheba.
        Gilgal will certainly go into exile.
    Bethel will come to nothing.
⁶ Search for Yahweh and live!
    If you don’t, he will spread like a fire through the house of Joseph
        and burn it down.
            Bethel will have no one to put it out.

⁷ You, Israel, turn justice into poison
    and throw righteousness on the ground.

⁸ Elohim made the constellations Pleiades and Orion.
    He turns deep darkness into dawn.
    He turns day into night.
    He calls for water from the sea
        to pour it over the face of the earth.
    His name is Yahweh.
⁹ He destroys strongholds and ruins fortresses.

¹⁰ Israel, you hate anyone who speaks out against injustice.
    You are disgusted by anyone who speaks the truth.
¹¹ You trample on the poor
    and take their wheat from them for taxes.
        That is why you build houses from hand-cut stones,
            but you will not live in them.
        You plant beautiful vineyards,
            but you will not drink their wine.
¹² I know that your crimes are numerous and your sins are many.
    You oppress the righteous by taking bribes.
        You deny the needy access to the courts.
¹³ That is why a wise person remains silent at such times,
    because those times are so evil.

¹⁴ Search for good instead of evil so that you may live.
    Then Yahweh Elohe Tsebaoth will be with you, as you have said.
¹⁵ Hate evil and love good.
    Then you will be able to have justice in your courts.
        Maybe Yahweh Elohe Tsebaoth
            will have pity on the faithful few of Joseph.

There will be loud crying in every city square,
    and people will say in every street, “Oh, no!”
    They will call on farmers to mourn
    and on professional mourners to cry loudly.
¹⁷ There will be loud crying in every vineyard,
    because I will pass through your land with death.

²⁵ Did you bring me sacrifices and grain offerings
    in the desert for 40 years, nation of Israel?
²⁶ You carried along the statues of the god Sikkuth as your king
    and the star Kiyyun,
        the gods you made for yourselves.

²⁷ I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,
    says Yahweh, whose name is Elohe Tsebaoth.