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

² "The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up."

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

⁴ For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live;

⁵ but don't seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶ Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

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

⁸ seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,

⁹ who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹³ Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

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

¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

¹⁶ Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas! Alas!' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says Yahweh.

¹⁸ "Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

²⁰ Won't the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.

²² Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵ "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

²⁶ You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus," says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.

¹ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

³ and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵ and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

⁶ Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes.

⁷ It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁸ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;

¹⁰ it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.

¹¹ It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.

¹² Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.

¹³ For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁴ You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.

¹⁵ I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.

¹⁶ Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.

¹⁷ I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹⁸ The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

¹⁹ Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰ You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.

²² In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.

²³ It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵ You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,

²⁶ thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

²⁷ I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].

²⁸ You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;

²⁹ while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

³⁰ Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.

³¹ I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³² You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.