Seek the Lord and Live

¹Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

²“Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

³For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

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

“Seek me and live;

⁵but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beersheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶Seek the Lord and live,

lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

⁷O you who turn justice to wormwood1

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name;

⁹who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

¹¹Therefore because you trample on2 the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

¹²For I know how many are your transgressions

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

and turn aside the needy in the gate.

¹³Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,

for it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

as you have said.

¹⁵Hate evil, and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

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

“In all the squares there shall be wailing,

and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They shall call the farmers to mourning

and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,

¹⁷and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through your midst,”

says the Lord.

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