1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel:
2“The virgin of Israel has fallen;
3For the Lord Yahweh says:
4For Yahweh says to the house of Israel:
5but don’t seek Bethel,
6Seek Yahweh, and you will live,
7You who turn justice to wormwood,
8Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion,
9who brings sudden destruction on the strong,
10They hate him who reproves in the gate,
11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat,
12For I know how many are your offenses,
13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time,
14Seek good, and not evil,
15Hate evil, love good,
16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:
17In all vineyards there will be wailing,
18“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh!
19As if a man fled from a lion,
20Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light?
21I hate, I despise your feasts,
22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings,
23Take away from me the noise of your songs!
24But let justice roll on like rivers,
25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
27Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.