| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you: | 1Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing: |
| 2“Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.” | 2“The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.” |
| 3This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will only see a hundred return, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.” | 3The Sovereign LORD says: “When a city sends a thousand men to battle, only a hundred will return. When a town sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive.” |
| 4For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live! | 4Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live! |
| 5Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. | 5Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel; don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.” |
| 6Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. | 6Come back to the LORD and live! Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames. |
| 7There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground. | 7You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. |
| 8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name— | 8It is the LORD who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name! |
| 9He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold. | 9With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses. |
| 10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity. | 10How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! |
| 11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. | 11You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them. |
| 12For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate. | 12For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. |
| 13Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil. | 13So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time. |
| 14Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed. | 14Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. |
| 15Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” | 15Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people. |
| 16Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail. | 16Therefore, this is what the Lord, the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, says: “There will be crying in all the public squares and mourning in every street. Call for the farmers to weep with you, and summon professional mourners to wail. |
| 17There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD. | 17There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will destroy them all,” says the LORD. Warning of Coming Judgment |
| 18Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light. | 18What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the LORD were here!” You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. |
| 19It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake. | 19In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake. |
| 20Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? | 20Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. |
| 21“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. | 21“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. |
| 22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard. | 22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. |
| 23Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. | 23Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. |
| 24But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. | 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. |
| 25Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? | 25“Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? |
| 26You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves. | 26No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. |
| 27Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts. | 27So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus, ” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies. |
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