| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel: | 1Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing: |
| 2She has fallen; Virgin Israel will never 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.” |
| 3For the Lord GOD says: The city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have only 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 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 or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly 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 spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume 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. |
| 7Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground. | 7You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. |
| 8The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the water of the sea and pours it out over the surface 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 brings destruction on the strong, and it falls on the fortress. | 9With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses. |
| 10They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one 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 a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone 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 your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates. | 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, those who have insight will keep silent at such a time, for the days are evil. | 13So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time. |
| 14Pursue good and not evil so that you may live, and the LORD, the God of Armies, 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 city gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Armies, 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 the LORD, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: There will be wailing in all the public squares; they will cry out in anguish in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn, and professional 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 among you. The LORD has spoken. | 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 have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him. | 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. |
| 20Won't the day of the LORD be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it? | 20Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. |
| 21I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can't 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 if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. | 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 flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream. | 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. |
| 25"House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness? | 25“Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? |
| 26But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves. | 26No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. |
| 27So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus." The LORD, the God of Armies, is his name. He has spoken. | 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. |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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