⁴ “Come^(G) to Bethel and transgress,
At ^(H)Gilgal multiply transgression;
^(I)Bring your sacrifices every morning,
^(J)Your tithes every three ^[c]days.
^5 (K)Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,
Proclaim and announce ^(L)the freewill offerings;
For this you love,
You children of Israel!”
Says the Lord God.

⁷ “I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
⁸ So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.

⁹ “I^(N) blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased,
Your vineyards,
Your fig trees,
And your olive trees,
^(O)The locust devoured them;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.

¹⁰ “I sent among you a plague ^(P)after the manner of Egypt;
Your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with your captive horses;
I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.

¹¹ “I overthrew some of you,
As God overthrew ^(Q)Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says the Lord.

¹² “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
^(R)Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³ For behold,
He who forms mountains,
And creates the ^[e]wind,
^(S)Who declares to man what ^[f]his thought is,
And makes the morning darkness,
^(T)Who treads the high places of the earth—
^(U)The Lord God of hosts is His name.

² The virgin of Israel has fallen;
She will rise no more.
She lies forsaken on her land;
There is no one to raise her up.

“The city that goes out by a thousand
Shall have a hundred left,
And that which goes out by a hundred
Shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

^(W)“Seek Me ^(X)and live;
⁵ But do not seek ^(Y)Bethel,
Nor enter Gilgal,
Nor pass over to ^(Z)Beersheba;
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
And ^(AA)Bethel shall come to nothing.
^6 (AB)Seek the Lord and live,
Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
And devour it,
With no one to quench it in Bethel—
⁷ You who ^(AC)turn justice to wormwood,
And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”

⁸ He made the ^(AD)Pleiades and Orion;
He turns the shadow of death into morning
^(AE)And makes the day dark as night;
He ^(AF)calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the face of the earth;
^(AG)The Lord is His name.
⁹ He ^[g]rains ruin upon the strong,
So that fury comes upon the fortress.

^10 (AH)They hate the one who rebukes in the gate,
And they ^(AI)abhor the one who speaks uprightly.
^11 (AJ)Therefore, because you ^[h]tread down the poor
And take grain ^[i]taxes from him,
Though ^(AK)you have built houses of hewn stone,
Yet you shall not dwell in them;
You have planted ^[j]pleasant vineyards,
But you shall not drink wine from them.
¹² For I ^(AL)know your manifold transgressions
And your mighty sins:
^(AM)Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
^(AN)Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
¹³ Therefore ^(AO)the prudent keep silent at that time,
For it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil,
That you may live;
So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,
^(AP)As you have spoken.
^15 (AQ)Hate evil, love good;
Establish justice in the gate.
^(AR)It may be that the Lord God of hosts
Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

“There shall be wailing in all streets,
And they shall say in all the highways,
‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmer to mourning,
^(AS)And skillful lamenters to wailing.
¹⁷ In all vineyards there shall be wailing,
For ^(AT)I will pass through you,”
Says the Lord.

^18 (AU)Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
For what good is ^(AV)the day of the Lord to you?
It will be darkness, and not light.
¹⁹ It will be ^(AW)as though a man fled from a lion,
And a bear met him!
Or as though he went into the house,
Leaned his hand on the wall,
And a serpent bit him!
²⁰ Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

²¹ “I^(AX) hate, I despise your feast days,
And ^(AY)I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
^22 (AZ)Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
²³ Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
^24 (BA)But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵ “Did^(BB) you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
²⁶ You also carried ^[k]Sikkuth^{[l] (BC)}your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
²⁷ Therefore I will send you into captivity ^(BD)beyond Damascus,”
Says the Lord, ^(BE)whose name is the God of hosts.

^5 (A)Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.

For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
⁶ Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the ^[a]cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are sweet.
⁷ Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave,
As when one plows and breaks up the earth.

⁸ But ^(B)my eyes are upon You, O God the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
^[b]Do not leave my soul destitute.
⁹ Keep me from ^(C)the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
^10 (D)Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.

^26 (A)Many seek the ruler’s ^[a]favor,
But justice for man comes from the Lord.

^(Q)“Holy,^[f] holy, holy,
^(R)Lord God Almighty,
^(S)Who was and is and is to come!”

¹¹ “You^(V) are worthy, ^[g]O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
^(W)For You created all things,
And by ^(X)Your will they ^[h]exist and were created.”