Chapter 5

“Seek Me that You May Live”

1 Hear this word which I take up for you as a adirge, O house of Israel:

2 She has fallen, she will anot rise again—

The bvirgin Israel.

She lies neglected on her land;

There is cnone to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord 1God,

“The city which goes forth a thousand strong

Will have a ahundred left,

And the one which goes forth a hundred strong

Will have bten left to the house of Israel.”

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel,

“aSeek Me bthat you may live.

5 “But do not 1resort to aBethel

And do not come to bGilgal,

Nor cross over to cBeersheba;

For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity

And Bethel will 2come to trouble.

6 “aSeek the Lord that you may live,

Or He will break forth like a bfire, 1O house of Joseph,

And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,

7 For those who turn ajustice into wormwood

And 1cast righteousness down to the earth.”

8 He who made the aPleiades and Orion

And bchanges deep darkness into morning,

1Who also cdarkens day into night,

Who dcalls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the surface of the earth,

The eLord is His name.

9 It is He who aflashes forth with destruction upon the strong,

So that bdestruction comes upon the fortress.

10 They hate him who areproves in the 1gate,

And they babhor him who speaks with integrity.

11 Therefore because you 1impose heavy rent on the poor

And exact a tribute of grain from them,

Though you have built ahouses of well-hewn stone,

Yet you will not live in them;

You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will bnot drink their wine.

12 For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great,

You who adistress the righteous and accept bribes

And 1turn aside the poor in the 2gate.

13 Therefore at 1such a time the prudent person akeeps silent, for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live;

And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you,

aJust as you have said!

15 aHate evil, love good,

And establish justice in the 1gate!

Perhaps the Lord God of hosts

bMay be gracious to the cremnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,

“There is awailing in all the plazas,

And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They also call the bfarmer to mourning

And 1cprofessional mourners to lamentation.

17 “And in all the avineyards there is wailing,

Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.

18 Alas, you who are longing for the aday of the Lord,

For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?

It will be bdarkness and not light;

19 As when a man aflees from a lion

And a bear meets him,

1Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall

And a snake bites him.

20 Will not the day of the Lord be adarkness instead of light,

Even gloom with no brightness in it?

21 “I hate, I areject your festivals,

Nor do I 1bdelight in your solemn assemblies.

22 “Even though you aoffer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

And I will not even look at the bpeace offerings of your fatlings.

23 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs;

I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

24 “But let ajustice roll down like waters

And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 “1aDid you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?

26 “aYou also carried along 1Sikkuth your king and 2Kiyyun, your images, 3the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.

27 “Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Chapter 6

“Those at Ease in Zion”

1 aWoe to those who are at ease in Zion

And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,

The bdistinguished men of the foremost of nations,

To whom the house of Israel comes.

2 Go over to aCalneh and look,

And go from there to bHamath the great,

Then go down to cGath of the Philistines.

Are 1they better than these kingdoms,

Or is their territory greater than yours?

3 Do you aput off the day of calamity,

And would you bbring near the seat of violence?

4 Those who recline on beds of ivory

And sprawl on their acouches,

And beat lambs from the flock

And calves from the midst of the stall,

5 Who improvise to the sound of the harp,

And like David have 1composed asongs for themselves,

6 Who adrink wine from 1sacrificial bowls

While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils,

Yet they have not bgrieved over the ruin of Joseph.

7 Therefore, they will now ago into exile at the head of the exiles,

And the bsprawlers’ 1banqueting will 2pass away.

8 The Lord 1God has asworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared:

“I bloathe the arrogance of Jacob,

And 2detest his ccitadels;

Therefore I will ddeliver up the city and 3all it contains.”

9 And it will be, if aten men are left in one house, they will die.

10 Then one’s 1uncle, or his 2aundertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will 3answer, “bKeep quiet. For 4the name of the Lord is cnot to be mentioned.”

11 For behold, the Lord is going to acommand that the bgreat house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.

12 Do horses run on rocks?

Or does one plow 1them with oxen?

Yet you have turned ajustice into poison

And the fruit of righteousness into 2wormwood,

13 You who rejoice in 1aLodebar,

2And say, “Have we not bby our own strength taken 3Karnaim for ourselves?”

14 “For behold, aI am going to raise up a nation against you,

O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God of hosts,

“And they will afflict you from the bentrance of Hamath

To the bbrook of the Arabah.”