5 Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel:

² `Fallen, not again to rise, hath the virgin of Israel, Left on her land -- she hath no raiser up.'

³ For thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city that is going out a thousand, Doth leave an hundred, And that which is going out an hundred, Doth leave ten to the house of Israel.

⁴ For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live,

⁵ And seek not Beth-El, and Gilgal enter not, And Beer-Sheba pass not through, For Gilgal doth utterly remove, And Beth-El doth become vanity.

⁶ Seek ye Jehovah, and live, Lest He prosper as fire [against] the house of Joseph, And it hath consumed, And there is no quencher for Beth-El.

⁷ Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down,

⁸ The maker of Kimah and Kesil, And the turner to morning of death-shade, And day [as] night He hath made dark, Who is calling to the waters of the sea, And poureth them on the face of the earth, Jehovah [is] His name;

⁹ Who is brightening up the spoiled against the strong, And the spoiled against a fortress cometh.

¹⁰ They have hated a reprover in the gate, And a plain speaker they abominate.

¹¹ Therefore, because of your trampling on the poor, And the tribute of corn ye take from him, Houses of hewn work ye have built, And ye do not dwell in them, Desirable vineyards ye have planted, And ye do not drink their wine.

¹² For I have known -- many [are] your transgressions, And mighty your sins, Adversaries of the righteous, taking ransoms, And the needy in the gate ye turned aside.

¹³ Therefore is the wise at that time silent, For an evil time it [is].

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live, And it is so; Jehovah, God of Hosts, [is] with you, as ye said.

¹⁵ Hate evil, and love good, And set up judgment in the gate, It may be Jehovah, God of Hosts, doth pity the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, the Lord, In all broad places [is] lamentation, And in all out-places they say, `Alas, alas,' And called the husbandman to mourning, And to lamentation the skilful of wailing.

¹⁷ And in all vineyards [is] lamentation, For I pass into thy midst, said Jehovah.

¹⁸ Ho, ye who are desiring the day of Jehovah, Why [is] this to you -- the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light,

¹⁹ As [when] one fleeth from the face of the lion, And the bear hath met him, And he hath come in to the house, And hath leant his hand on the wall, And the serpent hath bitten him.

²⁰ Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, Even thick darkness that hath no brightness?

²¹ I have hated -- I have loathed your festivals, And I am not refreshed by your restraints.

²² For though ye cause burnt-offerings and your presents to ascend to Me, I am not pleased, And the peace-offering of your fatlings I behold not.

²³ Turn aside from Me the noise of thy songs, Yea, the praise of thy psaltery I hear not.

²⁴ And roll on as waters doth judgment, And righteousness as a perennial stream.

²⁵ Sacrifices and offering did ye bring nigh to Me, In a wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶ And ye bare Succoth your king, and Chiun your images, The star of your god, that ye made for yourselves.

²⁷ And I removed you beyond Damascus, Said Jehovah, God of Hosts [is] His name.

6 Wo [to] those secure in Zion, And those confident in the mount of Samaria, The marked of the chief of the nations, And come to them have the house of Israel.

² Pass ye over [to] Calneh and see, And go thence [to] Hamath the great, And go down [to] Gath of the Philistines, Are [they] better than these kingdoms? Greater [is] their border than your border?

³ Who are putting away the day of evil, And ye bring nigh the seat of violence,

⁴ Who are lying down on beds of ivory, And are spread out on their couches, And are eating lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall,

⁵ Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music;

⁶ Who are drinking with bowls of wine, And [with] chief perfumes anoint [themselves], And have not been pained for the breach of Joseph.

⁷ Therefore now they remove at the head of the captives, And turned aside is the mourning-feast of stretched-out ones.

⁸ Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by Himself, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts: I am abominating the excellency of Jacob, And his high places I have hated, And I have delivered up the city and its fulness.

⁹ And if there are left ten persons in one house, It hath come to pass -- that they have died.

¹⁰ And lifted him up hath his loved one, even his burner, To bring forth the bones from the house, And he said to him who [is] in the sides of the house, `Is there yet with thee?' And he said, `None,' then he said, `Hush! Save to make mention of the name of Jehovah.'

¹¹ For lo, Jehovah is commanding, And He hath smitten the great house [with] breaches, And the little house [with] clefts.

¹² Do horses run on a rock? Doth one plough [it] with oxen? For ye have turned to gall judgment, And the fruit of righteousness to wormwood.

¹³ O ye who are rejoicing at nothing, Who are saying, `Have we not by our strength taken to ourselves horns?'

¹⁴ Surely, lo, I am raising against you a nation, O house of Israel, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts, And they have oppressed you from the coming in to Hamath, Unto the stream of the desert.