A Lamentation against Israel
1Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.+ 2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.+ 3For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.+A Call to Repentance
Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5
4For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live;+ 5but seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.+ 6Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.+ 7Ye who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,+ 8[seek him] that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth ( Jehovah is his name);+ 9that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh upon the fortress.+ 10They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.+ 11Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.+ 12For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins—ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate [from their right].+ 13Therefore he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time.+ 14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say.+ 15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.+