¹ 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.

¹ In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah reigned hath Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah.

² A son of twenty years [is] Ahaz in his reigning, and sixteen years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and he hath not done that which [is] right in the eyes of Jehovah his God, like David his father,

³ and he walketh in the way of the kings of Israel, and also his son he hath caused to pass over into fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel,

⁴ and he sacrificeth and maketh perfume in high places, and on the heights, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then doth Rezin king of Aram go up, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to Jerusalem, to battle, and they lay siege to Ahaz, and they have not been able to fight.

⁶ At that time hath Rezin king of Aram brought back Elath to Aram, and casteth out the Jews from Elath, and the Aramaeans have come in to Elath, and dwell there unto this day.

⁷ And Ahaz sendeth messengers unto Tiglath-Pileser king of Asshur, saying, `Thy servant and thy son [am] I; come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.'

⁸ And Ahaz taketh the silver and the gold that is found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the house of the king, and sendeth to the king of Asshur -- a bribe.

⁹ And hearken unto him doth the king of Asshur, and the king of Asshur goeth up unto Damascus, and seizeth it, and removeth [the people of] it to Kir, and Rezin he hath put to death.

¹⁰ And king Ahaz goeth to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Asshur [at] Damascus, and seeth the altar that [is] in Damascus, and king Ahaz sendeth unto Urijah the priest the likeness of the altar, and its pattern, according to all its work,

¹¹ and Urijah the priest buildeth the altar according to all that king Ahaz hath sent from Damascus; so did Urijah the priest till the coming in of king Ahaz from Damascus.

¹² And the king cometh in from Damascus, and the king seeth the altar, and the king draweth near on the altar, and offereth on it,

¹³ and perfumeth his burnt-offering, and his present, and poureth out his libation, and sprinkleth the blood of the peace-offerings that he hath, on the altar.

¹⁴ As to the altar of brass that [is] before Jehovah -- he bringeth [it] near from the front of the house, from between the altar and the house of Jehovah, and putteth it on the side of the altar, northward.

¹⁵ And king Ahaz commandeth him -- Urijah the priest -- saying, `On the great altar perfume the burnt-offering of the morning, and the present of the evening, and the burnt-offering of the king, and his present, and the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their present, and their libations; and all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice, on it thou dost sprinkle, and the altar of brass is to me to inquire [by].'

¹⁶ And Urijah the priest doth according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ And king Ahaz cutteth off the borders of the bases, and turneth aside from off them the laver, and the sea he hath taken down from off the brazen oxen that [are] under it, and putteth it on a pavement of stones.

¹⁸ And the covered place for the sabbath that they built in the house, and the entrance of the king without, he turned [from] the house of Jehovah, because of the king of Asshur.

¹⁹ And the rest of the matters of Ahaz that he did, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰ And Ahaz lieth with his fathers, and is buried with his fathers, in the city of David, and reign doth Hezekiah his son in his stead.