Chapter 5

1 Hear ye this word which I raise upon you, Even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 Fallen is the virgin of Israel, and she will rise no more; Left is she on her land, none is there to raise her up.

3 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah,— The city from which went forth a thousand, There will remain in it a hundred; And that from which it went forth a hundred, There will remain ten to the house of Israel.

4 For thus saith Jehovah to the house of Israel,— Seek ye me, and ye shall live;

5 And seek not Bethel, and to Gilgal go not, And pass not over to Beersheba; ⁷⁸⁷⁸     “And travel not to Beersheba,” or “make no pilgrimage to Beersheba.” The verb עבר expresses going abroad to another country. Beersheba belonged to the kingdom of Judah. — Bp. Horsley.
     For Gilgal by migrating shall migrate, And Bethel shall be as nothing:

6 Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live, Lest he advance as a fire on the house of Joseph, And devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

7 They turn judgment into wormwood, And righteousness they cast on the ground.—

8 He who made Pleiades and Orion, (261) Who turns darkness into morning, And darkens the day into night, Who calls the waters of the sea, And pours them on the face of the earth,— Jehovah is his name;

9 Who strengthens a waster against the strong, And against a fortress shall a waster ascend. (263)

10 They hate in the gate a reprover, And the speaker of right they abominate.

11 As ye have trodden the poor under foot, (266) And a burden of corn have taken from him, Houses of hewn stone shall ye build, But ye shall not dwell in them; And pleasant vineyards shall ye plant, But ye shall not drink their wine;

12 For I know your many iniquities, and your mighty sins; Oppressors of the just! And takers of ransom! And the poor in the gate they turn aside.

13 Therefore the prudent at that time will be silent, For an evil time it is. (270)

14 Seek ye good, and not evil, that ye may live; And so Jehovah, the God of Hosts, Will be with you, as ye have said.

15 Hate evil, and love good, And set up judgment in the gate; It may be, that Jehovah, the God of Hosts, Will show mercy to the remnants of Joseph.

16 Therefore Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the Lord, saith,— In all the streets of concourse shall be lamentation, And in all the highways shall they say, “Woe! Woe!” (279) And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, And lamentation shall be to all skillful in mourning;

17 And in all the vineyards shall be lamentation; For I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.

18 Woe to those who desire the day of Jehovah! What will this be to you? The day of Jehovah will be darkness and not light;

19 As when one flees before a lion, and a bear meets him; Or comes to his house, and leans with his hand on a wall, And a serpent bites him.

20 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? And thick darkness and no brightness?

21 I hate, I abhor your festal-days, And I will not smell at your solemnities;

22 Verily, when ye offer me your burnt-offerings and your gifts, I will not count them acceptable; And the peace offering of your fat things I will not regard.

23 Take away from me the number of thy songs, And the harmony of the lyres; I will not hear them:

24 And run down as waters shall judgment, And righteousness as an impetuous torrent. (292)

25 Have ye offered to me sacrifices and an oblation In the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?

26 But ye bore Sicuth, your king, and Chion, Your images, the stars being your gods; Which ye made for yourselves. (295)

27 To migrate therefore I will make you beyond Damascus, Saith Jehovah, the God of Hosts is his name.