| NET Bible | New International Version |
| 1Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel: | 1Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: |
| 2"The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up." | 2"Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up." |
| 3The sovereign LORD says this: "The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left; the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel." | 3This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Israel: "Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left." |
| 4The LORD says this to the family of Israel: "Seek me so you can live! | 4This is what the LORD says to Israel: "Seek me and live; |
| 5Do not seek Bethel! Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile; and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds." | 5do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing." |
| 6Seek the LORD so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph's family; the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. | 6Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. |
| 7The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground. | 7There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. |
| 8(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth's surface. The LORD is his name! | 8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land-- the LORD is his name. |
| 9He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.) | 9With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin. |
| 10The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly. | 10There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. |
| 11Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted. | 11You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. |
| 12Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate. | 12For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. |
| 13For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time. | 13Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. |
| 14Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the LORD, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is. | 14Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. |
| 15Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote justice at the city gate! Maybe the LORD, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on those who are left from Joseph. | 15Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. |
| 16Because of Israel's sins this is what the LORD, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, says: "In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. They will tell the field workers to lament and the professional mourners to wail. | 16Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. |
| 17In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. | 17There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. |
| 18Woe to those who wish for the day of the LORD! Why do you want the LORD's day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light. | 18Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. |
| 19Disaster will be inescapable, as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake. | 19It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. |
| 20Don't you realize the LORD's day of judgment will bring darkness, not light--gloomy blackness, not bright light? | 20Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light-- pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? |
| 21"I absolutely despise your festivals! I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies! | 21"I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. |
| 22Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. | 22Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. |
| 23Take away from me your noisy songs; I don't want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. | 23Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. |
| 24Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up. | 24But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! |
| 25You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel. | 25"Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? |
| 26You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves, | 26You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god -- which you made for yourselves. |
| 27and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD. He is called the God who commands armies! | 27Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty. |
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