¹ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

² but I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet;

³ and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk:

⁵ but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

⁶ Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes-

⁷ they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the [same] maiden, to profane my holy name:

⁸ and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined.

⁹ Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹ And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah.

¹² But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

¹³ Behold, I will press [you] in your place, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves.

¹⁴ And flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;

¹⁵ neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver [himself]; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself;

¹⁶ and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.

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

² The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.

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

⁵ but 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.

⁶ Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

⁷ Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,

⁸ [seek him] that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth (Jehovah is his name);

⁹ that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh upon the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.

¹² For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins-ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate [from their right].

¹³ Therefore he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say.

¹⁵ Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! Alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.

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

¹⁸ Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ As 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.

²⁰ Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

²² Yea, though ye offer me your burnt-offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.

²³ Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

²⁴ But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

²⁵ Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶ Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah, whose name is the God of hosts.