² “The virgin Israel has fallen,
    never to rise again!
She lies abandoned on the ground,
    with no one to help her up.”

“When a city sends a thousand men to battle,
    only a hundred will return.
When a town sends a hundred,
    only ten will come back alive.”

“Come back to me and live!
⁵ Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel;
    don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba.
For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile,
    and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
⁶ Come back to the Lord and live!
Otherwise, he will roar through Israel^[a] like a fire,
    devouring you completely.
Your gods in Bethel
    won’t be able to quench the flames.
⁷ You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed.
    You treat the righteous like dirt.

⁸ It is the Lord who created the stars,
    the Pleiades and Orion.
He turns darkness into morning
    and day into night.
He draws up water from the oceans
    and pours it down as rain on the land.
    The Lord is his name!
⁹ With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,
    crushing all their defenses.

¹⁰ How you hate honest judges!
    How you despise people who tell the truth!
¹¹ You trample the poor,
    stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.
Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,
    you will never live in them.
Though you plant lush vineyards,
    you will never drink wine from them.
¹² For I know the vast number of your sins
    and the depth of your rebellions.
You oppress good people by taking bribes
    and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
¹³ So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,
    for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Do what is good and run from evil
    so that you may live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
    just as you have claimed.
¹⁵ Hate evil and love what is good;
    turn your courts into true halls of justice.
Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
    will have mercy on the remnant of his people.^[b]

“There will be crying in all the public squares
    and mourning in every street.
Call for the farmers to weep with you,
    and summon professional mourners to wail.
¹⁷ There will be wailing in every vineyard,
    for I will destroy them all,”
    says the Lord.

²¹ “I hate all your show and pretense—
    the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
²² I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
    I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
²³ Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
²⁴ Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
    an endless river of righteous living.