Dual Panel1Listen, Israel, to these words, the dirge I raise over you:
2She has fallen, to rise no more, the virgin Israel, prostrate on her own soil, with no one to lift her up.
3These are the words of the Lord GOD: The city that marched out to war a thousand strong will have but a hundred left, and that which marched out a hundred strong will have but ten left for Israel.
4These are the words of the LORD to the people of Israel: If you would live, make your way to me,
5not to Bethel; do not go to Gilgal or pass on to Beersheba; for Gilgal will surely go into exile and Bethel come to nothing.
6If you would live, make your way to the LORD, or he will break out against Joseph's descendants like fire, fire which will devour Bethel with no one to quench it.
7You that turn justice to poison and thrust righteousness to the ground,
8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the earth -- the LORD is his name --
9who makes destruction flash forth against the mighty so that destruction comes upon the stronghold.
10you that hate a man who brings the wrongdoer to court and abominate him who speaks nothing less than truth:
11for all this, because you levy taxes on the poor and extort a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of hewn stone, you will not live in them; though you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink wine from them.
12For I know how many are your crimes, how monstrous your sins: you bully the innocent, extort ransoms, and in court push the destitute out of the way.
13In such a time, therefore, it is prudent to stay quiet, for it is an evil time.
14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live, that the LORD, the God of Hosts, may be with you, as you claim he is.
15Hate evil, and love good; establish justice in the courts; it may be that the LORD, the God of Hosts, will show favour to the survivors of Joseph.
16Therefore these are the words of the LORD, the God of Hosts. In all the public squares, there will be wailing, the sound of grief in every street. The farmer will be called to mourning, and wailing proclaimed to those skilled in the dirge;
17there will be wailing in every vineyard; for I shall pass through your midst, says the LORD.
18Woe betide those who long for the day of the LORD! What will the day of the LORD mean for you? It will be darkness, not light;
19it will be as when someone runs from a lion, only to be confronted by a bear, or as when he enters his house and leans with his hand on the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.
20The day of the LORD is indeed darkness, not light, a day of gloom without a ray of brightness.
21I spurn with loathing your pilgrim-feasts; I take no pleasure in your sacred ceremonies.
22When you bring me your whole-offerings and your grain-offerings I shall not accept them, nor pay heed to your shared-offerings of stall-fed beasts.
23Spare me the sound of your songs; I shall not listen to the strumming of your lutes.
24Instead let justice flow on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing torrent.
25Did you, people of Israel, bring me sacrifices and offerings those forty years in the wilderness?
26No! But now you will take up the shrine of your idol-king and the pedestals of your images, which you have made for yourselves,
27and I shall drive you into exile beyond Damascus. So says the LORD; the God of Hosts is his name.