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.

¹ "I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.

² I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

³ a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

⁴ who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

⁵ who say, Stand by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶ "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom,

⁷ your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together," says Yahweh, "who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom."

⁸ Thus says Yahweh, "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it:' so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.

⁹ I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

¹⁰ Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.

¹¹ "But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny;

¹² I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight."

¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be disappointed;

¹⁴ behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit.

¹⁵ You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:

¹⁶ so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

¹⁷ "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

¹⁸ But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.

²⁰ "There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.

²¹ They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

²² They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³ They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh, and their offspring with them.

²⁴ It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain," says Yahweh.