1Hear you this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Yashar'el (Israel).
2The virgin of Yashar'el (Israel) is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3For thus says Adonai Yahuah (the Lord GOD); The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Yashar'el (Israel).
4For thus says Yahuah (LORD) unto the house of Yashar'el (Israel), Seek you me, and you shall live:
5But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.
6Seek Yahuah (LORD), and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.
7You who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: Yahuah (LORD) is his name:
9That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly.
11Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.
12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so Yahuah (LORD), the Elohim (God) of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that Yahuah Elohim (the LORD God) of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16Therefore Yahuah (LORD), the Elohim (God) of hosts, Adonai (Lord), says thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, says Yahuah (LORD).
18Woe unto you that desire the day of Yahuah (LORD)! to what end is it for you? the day of Yahuah (LORD) is darkness, and not light.
19As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20Shall not the day of Yahuah (LORD) be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols.
24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Yashar'el (Israel)?
26But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.
27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says Yahuah (LORD), whose name is The Elohim (God) of hosts.