Chapter 5

¹Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

²“The virgin of Israel has fallen;

She shall rise no more.

She is cast down on her land;

There is no one to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord Yahweh:

“The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left,

And that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”

⁴For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel:

“Seek me, and you will live;

⁵But don’t seek Bethel,

Nor enter into Gilgal,

And don’t pass to Beersheba:

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,

And Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶Seek Yahweh, and you will live;

Lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

And it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

⁷You who turn justice to wormwood,

And cast down righteousness to the earth:

⁸Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion,

And turns the shadow of death into the morning,

And makes the day dark with night;

Who calls for the waters of the sea,

And pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,

⁹Who brings sudden destruction on the strong,

So that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,

And they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

¹¹Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor,

And take taxes from him of wheat:

You have built houses of hewn stone,

But you will not dwell in them.

You have planted pleasant vineyards,

But you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many your offenses,

And how great are your sins„

You who afflict the just,

Who take a bribe,

And who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time,

For it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,

That you may live;

And so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you,

As you say.

¹⁵Hate evil, love good,

And establish justice in the courts.

It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

¹⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord:

“Wailing will be in all the broad ways;

And they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’

And they will call the farmer to mourning,

And those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷In all vineyards there will be wailing;

For I will pass through the midst of you,” says Yahweh.

¹⁸“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh!

Why do you long for the day of Yahweh?

It is darkness,

And not light.

¹⁹As if a man fled from a lion,

And a bear met him;

Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall,

And a snake bit him.

²⁰Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light?

Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts,

And I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings,

I will not accept them;

Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers,

And righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶Yes, you have borne the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. ²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.